'Chopin saved my life'
10 years ago the remarkable story of Aberdeen graduate Paul Murray featured in a Channel 4 documentary. We catch up with him to see how he is using the passion which enabled him to continue as a pianist despite a brain tumour, paralysis and two serious illnesses to inspire the next generation of musical talent.
In August 2013, University of Aberdeen Masters student Paul Murray featured on posters advertising a new Channel 4 series catchily titled ‘Chopin saved my life’.
Paul, then 22, was one of the main contributors to the documentary series exploring the power of Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade Number 1 in helping ordinary people to overcome extreme adversity.
In Paul’s case, he credited listening to the solo piece for piano for restoring his memory as he lay partially paralysed in a hospital bed following the removal of a brain tumour.
Over three months as he waited in hospital between further operations and therapy, he played the Ballade again and again on the iPod his dad Stephen had given him.
Eventually Paul recovered the use of most of his body but his right hand remained paralysed – a major problem for an aspiring pianist.
The documentary told how Paul taught himself to play some of the world’s greatest classical pieces using only his left hand.
But this was only part of the story of the challenges faced by the student. We catch up with Paul a decade later to revisit his extraordinary story of courage and success against the odds, and to discover how he is now using music to inspire the next generation.
A natural musical talent
Acceptance onto a degree course is always a moment of pride but for Paul and his family, the news he had secured a place to study music at the University of Aberdeen brought with it extra reasons for celebration.
Paul grew up in Bellshill, a working-class suburb of Glasgow. Playing the piano was not something he’d ever seriously considered and music lessons did not feature heavily in his social circle.
Paul was 15 before his fingers first connected with the keys of a piano in the music rooms of his school, Bellshill Academy.
He says: “No one in my family was really musical and no one had been to University so it wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about.
“I’d messed around on a keyboard a little and then a teacher suggested I try the piano.
“At that time I was quite sporty and the idea of spending hours locked away practicing the piano didn’t hold much appeal but I gave it a try and found it came quite naturally.
“Because I had no musical frame of reference, I didn’t really understand how many levels I’d jumped but four months after starting. I understand now that this was quite unusual but at the time it all felt perfectly normal.”
Paul’s passion for classical music was fully ignited when he attended a Rachmaninov recital in Glasgow where he was left ‘in awe’, though he chuckles admitting that such was his lack of musical knowledge he thought the recital of the Second Piano Concerto was actually Celine Dion’s ‘All By Myself’ and began to hum along!
Nonetheless, he was inspired and quickly began ordering ordering sheet music.
“I had the hang of complicated pieces within a couple of months to the amazement of my teachers - including the first movement of the piano concerto I’d weeks earlier mistaken for pop music.
"However, the piece that I fell most in love with was Chopin’s Ballade No. 1 in G minor, learning this masterpiece in a matter of weeks, not realising the significance that this piece would later play in my life.
“I could play for five or six hours at a time but never saw it as work – it was something extra-curricular that I enjoyed. It’s just so natural to me.”
Music by this time was already helping Paul to cope with a debilitating medical condition. Two years before he’d started the piano, then aged 13, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease.
By the time he started at the University four years later he’d learned how to manage his flare ups and was excited to begin a new chapter in life, away from home for the first time.
Student life interrupted
Paul quickly adapted to student life and was initially thriving on his Bachelor of Music degree. But part way through his first year his began to develop crippling headaches.
Paul says: “At first I would get one a day that only lasted for 10 minutes, then it built up so I was getting three a day but again, they wouldn’t last very long and I put it down to the pressure of completing assignments for my course.
“However, the headaches became so uncontrollably sore so that I had to lie on the floor sometimes with my head in a certain position to relieve the pain.
“When I went home, I mentioned the headaches to my specialist for Crohn’s and he send me for an immediate CT scan.”
Paul was looking out over the iconic pitch at Ibrox, where he worked part-time as a catering assistant, when he received a phone call which would change his life.
“I was told they needed to see me urgently and I was then given the news that they had found a very significant tumour.
“It was so serious that I was told on Friday and booked in for surgery less than a week later. When left the doctor’s office thought I was fine but as soon as we got into the corridor I collapsed and couldn’t stop shaking.”
Paul would then spend almost five months in Glasgow’s Southern General. He had four brain surgeries with the first lasting more than 14 hours.
Spending his 18th birthday on a hospital ward he initially felt lucky to have survived but the reality of the battle he faced to recover his health soon became clearer.
“I had to re-learn to walk and to talk and was told to expect a recovery time of up to two-and-a-half years.”
It is during this time that he was reunited with Classical music, and began to listen to Chopin’s Ballade Number 1 ‘virtually on repeat’ using the iPod his dad Stephen had given him.
Paul felt an emotional pull towards the music, which he credits with a crucial role in the return of his memory.
Just seven months after he had left Aberdeen unexpectedly, Paul returned to the University to restart his first year.
A return with a standing ovation
Although Paul had improved at a much faster rate than his doctors had anticipated, he was still left with permanent paralysis on part of his right side, including in his hand.
“It was a bit of a problem for playing the piano,” he says matter-of-factly.
“At first I couldn’t really see anyway for me to continue with the instrument I loved but a meeting with one of my lecturers, Royal composer, Professor Paul Mealor, changed all that.
“He suggested I look into left-hand repertoire, which I wasn’t really aware of. It’s some of the most complicated music ever written but it is not diminished in any way by only one hand as movement and speed are always constant.
“I began to work on as much left-hand repertoire as I could get my hands on.”
A decade on Paul can still remember fondly the moment at which he knew he ‘was back’.
“I can still recall vividly my first concert playing only with my left hand. I finished my piece and when I looked up I saw Roger Williams – then the University’s long-serving organist – on his feet. He gave me a standing ovation I’ve never forgotten. It was a huge boost to my confidence that helped me to believe I still had a future in performance music.”
Paul continued to play as much as he could, improving his left-hand repertoire with every passing week, with the help of his then teacher and now mentor, Professor Nigel Clayton, Professor at the esteemed Royal College of Music, in London, alongside developing a new passion for composition under the supervision of Professor Paul Mealor.
But his health challenges were not over. During his second year, in 2010, he found he was running out of energy very quickly and started getting pins and needles. Then he woke one morning unable to feel anything from the waist down.
Initial tests diagnosed a vitamin deficiency but more extensive neurological investigation revealed he had developed multiple sclerosis (MS).
Paul coped with the condition well throughout his third year despite the ups and downs of getting to grips with daily injections but just before the summer break he again awoke to paralysis, this time down his left side.
The attack lasted for the whole of his summer break but, as determined as ever, Paul returned for his final year still with the drive to become the first person in his family to collect a degree certificate.
He said: “You do get to a stage where everything seems to be putting you down but I’d put my faith in the medical profession before going under the knife for brain surgery so I had to trust that once my medication was under control, life would improve again.”
When Paul eventually crossed the stage to graduate with a Bachelor of Music degree in July 2012 it was to rapturous applause.
But it wasn’t his last degree presentation. Inspired by composition, and in particular, those who adapted and arranged music for left-hand repertoire he signed up for a Masters of Music Composition in Aberdeen, which he passed without further medical interruption in 2014.
Paul was then accepted to study at the Glasgow School of Art where he further advanced his study in composition, receiving another Master’s in media composition for the screen and gaming.
A decade on
Ten years on from the screening of the documentary which brought him to national attention, Paul continues to champion the power of music.
In 2019 he set up The Glasgow School of Music with the objective to make music lessons accessible to everyone in the Central Belt of Scotland.
Having overcome so many hurdles to continue his own passion for music, Paul uses this journey to inspire and motivate his own students.
“I want to play my part in breaking down the barriers to classical music,” he adds. “I was the daft lad sat thinking Rachmaninov must have had a secret stash of Celine Dion albums hidden in his piano bench.
“But it doesn’t matter how music gets to us, it’s a mysterious thing personal to everyone. You don’t need to know anything about classic music to begin to enjoy it and you never know where that new-found appreciation might lead you. It could even save your life”.
Music continues to make its mark on the significant occasions in Paul’s life. When he married his wife Katie, a geriatric hospital doctor, in February 2020 there were few dry eyes when he arranged the music of “I Can’t Help Falling in Love” performed by the couple’s musical friends. Paul, ever the performer, says he’d have loved to have played but that his eternally supportive wife Katie may have drawn the line at him not joining their first dance!
Reflecting on how much has changed since he featured as a student in the documentary he adds : “I am so grateful for the opportunities studying at the University of Aberdeen opened up for me.
“The path to graduation wasn’t a straightforward journey but few of the things in life that really matter ever are.
“The support I received was invaluable in helping me to continue when at times things looked bleak but the experience of University life will stay with me forever.
“It’s hard to rebuild your confidence as a performer playing in a completely different way but I received so much encouragement it quickly helped me to realise I was on the right path. I’ve never forgotten playing at a special event to welcome Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Rothesay – now our Queen – to the School of Education. To hear somebody like that tell you that you are amazing is the biggest boost ever.
"I was also part of the choir and got to play a part in University history singing for Her late Majesty the Queen and Prince Phillip when they opened the Sir Duncan Rice Library.
“I hope that I can inspire the same perseverance, determination and passion for music in my own students as I know better than most people the ability music has to change lives.”
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