Chetham's School of Music

“Nicolls is a genuinely ‘edgy Brit’, and what she does should be happening every week of the year”’ Guardian

Sarah Nicolls invented her unique ‘Inside-Out Piano’ to be able to play on the strings more easily. This means she can easily pluck, strum, play harmonics, knock percussively, use handheld objects to ‘prepare’ and strike the strings and combine all of this with regular piano keyboard playing. Once it was built, she discovered that the piano also had many other properties that were unexpected – most surprisingly, it could swing. This concert will include music from Sarah’s solo albums of her own compositions and the shows she has made with the piano, whilst also containing new pieces.

Sarah describes her music as ’simple melodies shrouded in strange sounds’ and she combines playing the keyboard and the strings with computer sounds and processing. There are a vast array of magical and unusual sounds to hear, and to see being created more clearly than on any other piano. This concert will seek to take the audience on the journey of discovery which Sarah herself has been on with this incredible instrument, hearing it both at its simplest and in its richest, with multi-layered textures. There may also be time to share some of the surprises too.