Derek Paravicini

Derek has spent the last 38 years of his life making music! He first shot to fame when he was just nine years old, playing jazz with the Royal Philharmonic Pops Orchestraat the Barbican Centre in London. Numerous national and regional television appearances followed, in the UK and overseas. In the last few years, Derek featured in the series Extraordinary People (Channel 5, UK), and on BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. He has appeared indocumentaries in Japan, Germany, Australia, and the USA–including three times on CBS’s prestigious ‘60Minutes’ programme. Derek has given concerts in venues across England, in Europe and the USA; among them, Ronnie Scott's renowned jazz club, the Mandalay Bay Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada and in Phoenix, Arizona, for Mohammad Ali. He has performed twice at Buckingham Palace. In 2012, Derek played ‘Rhapsodyin Blue’ and a new piano concerto written specially for him with the Orchestra of St John’s in London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Derek had a further concerto specially composed for him and performed with full Orchestrain San Diego in 2017. 

There is no doubt that Derek is one of the most extraordinary pianists and musical entertainers of his generation. Yet he is blind, autistic and has severe learning difficulties. Dubbed ‘The Human iPod’ in the USA, Derek has a repertoire of tens of thousands of pieces–all learnt very rapidly, simply by listening to them. There is so much more to Derek than an iPod, though; beneath the quiet charm and thoughtful smile lies afiery, creative musician, whose astonishing improvisations and dazzling technique have wowed audiences bothsides of the Atlantic and, through his numerous media appearances, across the world.