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Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment and PRX

Snap, Glynn, Storytelling, Wnyc, Society & Culture/personal Journals, Performing Arts, Washington, Society & Culture/documentary, Arts/performing Arts, Music, Arts

4.8 • 11.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“I kept seeing pieces with this name at the top… I wasn’t looking for him, he was almost looking for me.” This week on Snap, Nicholas McCarthy immerses himself in left-hand only piano compositions and gets lost in the world of Wittgenstein.

Huge thanks to, Nicholas McCarthy, for sharing his story with Snap!

Nicholas is the first and only left-hand alone pianist to have graduated from London’s Royal College of Music in it’s 140 year history. He’s since gone on to tour internationally and has recorded two studio albums. Learn more about his career and music on his website or follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

This story was a collaboration with our friends Ilena Peng and Brendan Spiegel at Narratively. You can find more amazing storytelling celebrating the diversity of humanity at narratively.com

This piece featured home and studio recordings by Nicholas McCarthy, as well as additional scoring by Dirk Schwarzhoff.

It was produced by David Exumé and Bo Walsh. Engineering and additional music by Doug Stuart. Artwork by Teo Ducot.

Season 13 - Episode 40

Transcript

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0:00.0	Now, Judgment Studios.
0:07.0	If you like me, at some point over the past few months, when everyone on the big screen
0:29.9	is wearing tight to the cape, you're sick to yourself.
0:33.9	You know what?
0:35.9	Enough watching these superhero movies is time to make your own superhero.
0:42.2	You figure your rights up and up, send it off to Marvel in a couple days later, collect
0:46.2	that big check, right?
0:48.5	When you actually sit down, you realize it's harder than it seems to create a new hero.
0:56.0	Super speed, super strength, it's all been done.
0:58.8	You need a new twist.
1:00.2	Your champion's gotta be able to wrap shop in sex scenes, spectacular ways.
1:05.4	And just when you figure out the perfect power and you're just about to hit send, oh no.
1:13.8	You forgot the most important thing.
1:17.7	Every hero needs a weakness.
1:21.4	Superman has a script in the Hulk.
1:23.0	Doesn't like magic.
1:25.0	Aquaman's no help on dry land, but it's more than that.
1:29.0	See, a good hero needs some darkness.
1:32.3	He needs to have the one they couldn't say with all that power.
1:36.4	He needs to have the thing that no matter how much they wanted, no matter how hard they
1:42.4	tried, they still can't have.
1:47.2	And that's why today on Snap Judgment, we probably present the repertoire.
	...

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