Purple plaque celebrates alumna Sarah Nicolls

Last month, we hosted an event to celebrate former pupil, Sarah Nicolls, who has won the prestigious Women in Innovation Award from Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency. We were delighted to unveil a purple plaque in her honour on the school site.

Sarah often performs newly composed music and felt that the piano was the wrong shape. In new music, she was often asked to pluck a string or similar and she found it was hard to reach inside – and the audience couldn’t see this part of the performance. To overcome this problem, she built a vertical grand piano. Now she’s making it lightweight. Watch this video to see Sarah performing on a vertical grand piano.

Purple plaques are being displayed at schools across the country to recognise the achievements of the winners of the prestigious Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award. The Award also sees recipients receive £50,000 grant funding and one-to-one mentoring to scale up their businesses and bring their pioneering innovations to market.

Sarah is part of a network of over 200 Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award winners who are developing inspiring solutions to pressing societal, environmental, and economic challenges; from multi-grip bionic arms for amputees, an AI that curbs your unhealthy cravings, and satellite data to detect long-lost archaeological sites.

Sarah Nicolls, First Light Piano, said:

“It was an absolute honour to see my plaque go up at Chetham’s. I encourage every student to feel emboldened enough to change the world in the way they see it needs changing. We need all kinds of voices, everyone together, to make the future a genuinely better place. If this plaque inspires new journeys of exploration and discovery, mixed with passion and a little hard work, then I’ll be honoured. Bringing Innovate UK and Chetham’s together, both fantastic supporters, also fills me with great excitement, for how creative and business entities can work together and help each other.”

Tom Redmond, Director of Music and Joint Principal at Chetham’s School of Music, said:

“Sarah studied at Chetham’s with Heather Slade-Lipkin from 1988-92, and everyone at the School is thrilled to hear that she has won one of the 2022/23 Women in Innovation award from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK, for creating a lightweight vertical grand piano. We hope Sarah’s story encourages our young students to be brave, creative, and experimental with music.”

Emily Nott, Head of EDI Programmes, Innovate UK

“Sarah won an Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award because she is an innovator in the truest sense of the word. Drawing on her background experience and musical excellence she has created a unique product, a transformative instrument and a revolution in piano design. We know the UK needs more innovators and problem solvers and stories like Sarah’s are key to inspiring the next generation. Innovate UK hopes that Sarah’s Purple Plaque will be a lasting reminder to Chetham’s students that anyone can change the world through innovation.” 

Sarah Nicolls visit to Chethams School of Music.