Tuesday 11 March 2014  Nobuyuki Tsujii: 'The piano is an
extension of my own body'  This year's Proms feature a blind
pianist who is mobbed by groupies in his native Japan. Nobuyuki
Tsujii talks to Ivan Hewett.  Nobuyuki Tsujii Nobuyuki Tsujii 
There's something fascinating about the idea of a blind
musician. The sheer persistence needed to acquire skills where
sight is normally so important – reading all those black dots,
measuring the leap from this note to that one – is astonishing
enough in itself. But there's something else, an almost mystical
feeling that in lacking one sense, a musician sharpens others
that matter more: intense concentration on the task in hand,
super–sharp hearing, and, above all, an intuitive sense of how
others are thinking and feeling. This is surely why in many
cultures the blind seer who knows truths, and can sing them
truly, is a revered figure. Homer is our prime example.  That
ancient reverence might account for the craze around 24–year–old
pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii. He's adore