Blind pianist with Asperger’s who plays entirely from memory to play Tokyo concert with Katy Perry and disabled artists

A Welsh pianist with Asperger’s who is blind as a result of her premature birth will play a concert with Katy Perry in Tokyo as part of a festival featuring disabled artists.

Rachel Starritt, a 28-year-old professional pianist from Bridgend in south Wales, was born prematurely at just 24 weeks and plays all songs at her concerts completely from memory as she cannot see printed sheet music but uses brail music when available and when needed.

She uses special learning plans devised by her music teacher of 18 years to learn songs in full within two weeks and although her Asperger’s adds its own challenges, she feels it has given her an “advantage” in helping her focus on her practice.

Rachel lives with her parents Clyde and Andrea Starritt who help to care for her and recently travelled to Tokyo with her so she can play in the True Colors Festival, which is taking place on November 19 and 20.

The event features artists with a range of disabilities, including a one-handed violinist and a guitarist playing with his feet, and will be headlined by pop superstar Katy Perry.

“I’m really excited about being in Tokyo… this event really showcases that no matter who you are, where you come from or what background you have, you can always achieve your dreams,” said Rachel.

“It’s one world, one family and we’re hoping to express that with the concerts.

“We are all disabled artists and then also having Katy Perry here – she reaches some really amazing emotion in her music and has an amazing collective effect on the audience.

“I’ll be in the same room with her and the 12,000 people in the auditorium, that will be fantastic.”

For Rachel, music gives her the opportunity to express herself and show who she is, when “there are no words for it”.

Rachel, who is staying in Tokyo for a week for the concert and rehearsals, will be doing a classical solo as well as some jazz pieces during her performance.

Rachel, whose premature birth at 24 weeks caused her blindness, said she loved music for as long as she can remember.

“My mother used to sing me nursery rhymes and that sparked my love for music”, she remembered.

“When I started school, I heard the sound of an instrument for the first time. I didn’t know what it was, but I wanted to put my hands on it. I just loved the sound of it and later learned it was a piano.”

Starting piano lessons shortly after aged six, Rachel went on to study at the Junior Conservatoire at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (RWCMD), where she later completed a BA and MA in music.

She said: “With the piano, I can express myself and am in my own world, without needing support of other people.

“I can play both loud and soft, giving me a variety of textures and tonnes of ways to express myself. The piano is a language for me that words don’t come close to.”

Being a blind pianist with Asperger’s, Rachel faces unique challenges, like not being able to read printed sheet music while playing.

“Being a blind musician is as much physical as mental work,” she said.

“Blind pianists have to rely on memorization much more.

“I usually go about learning a new piece by listening to different recordings, to get a sense of it, and then my piano teacher Alison and I split it into smaller sections to work on.”

Rachel’s teacher of 18 years, Alison Bowring, has developed a successful learning plan which enables Rachel to learn new music pieces by heart in about two weeks.

The 28-year-old said: “We are playing through the different sections by overlaying hands, which I record to listen back to at home.

“I slow the recordings down, so I can get a sense of the notes because I have perfect pitch, which means that I can identify any notes without somebody telling me what they are.”

Rachel said she thinks her Asperger’s is “definitely interlinked” with her affinity for music.

“I approach music by just focusing on one thing and through practice, that exposure has an advantage,” she said.

“Due to the Asperger’s, I have different tools to get to the result I want and in the end I’m successful one way or another.”

Some of the tools that Rachel uses include fragmentation – splitting the music into different sections and practicing the correct fingering by saying numbers one to five out loud as she’s playing. Rachel said “practise makes perfect”.

With her music, Rachel wants to bring people together, which is why she also enjoyed being part of performances like the Love Unlimited Synth Orchestra at Glastonbury in 2019.

“Glastonbury was amazing – I was having so much fun and we showed how important feeling loved and connected is,” she said.

Rachel’s father Clyde, who handles her care with wife Andrea, said: “Since music has taken her all over the country and abroad as well, the required support has increased.

“I retired in 2019 from being an IT professional, which enabled both of us to make going abroad happen for Rachel. It is underestimated quite a lot how much support is needed.

“If anything, the Asperger’s is more of a handicap than the blindness. If it was just blindness, then Rachel would be able to probably travel around the country like other blind musicians do.

“But the Asperger’s impacts her organisational skills and time management, so we support her in those areas.

“So whilst Rachel is having a quite successful career starting off at the moment, it’s not all easy. It’s quite difficult to make it all work, but she’s having a great time and that is the main thing.”

The True Colors festival will be livestreamed for free from Japan’s Tokyo Garden Theatre from Saturday November 19 at 9am, and Sunday November 20 at 8am UK time – to follow it, visit: truecolorsfestival.com