Although professional and polished performances are always great to see, there’s something about spontaneity that touches our hearts.
Music has been around just as long as human beings have, and that’s largely because we can express ourselves more fully in that medium sometimes that we can any other way. Although language can help us express plenty of complex thoughts and ideas, music and other expressive art forms help us capture emotions right from the source. The good news too is that you can continue enjoying music at any age.
And this story captures all of those elements so perfectly.
If you’ve spent much time online, you are probably familiar with music performance videos coming out of London’s St. Pancras station.
For anyone who doesn’t know, St. Pancras International is a railway station in London, England that has pianos that are free for anyone to use in one of the main concourses. Because of that, all kinds of virally-minded performers have taken a seat at these pianos and have staged all kinds of “spontaneous” performances to attract clicks and views.
Fortunately, we have one performance for you today from the same train station that was actually spontaneous.
As it turns out, there’s a 91-year-old man named Denis Robinson who frequents the St. Pancras station to play piano.
To anybody who has to travel through the station often, Robinson is a familiar face and a comforting presence. To many more, he is a pleasant surprise on the way to wherever people might be going that day.
One of the people who noticed Robinson was Ceili O’Connor, a train passenger and a professional singer in her own right.
Rather than pass Robinson, she decided to sit down next to him and lend him her talents as well.
In their first performance together, the two shared a beautiful duet of “Somewhere Over The Rainbow.”
Although Robinson was used to performing on his own in the train station, he definitely didn’t expect his piano performance to be enhanced as beautifully as it was that day!
Needless to say, O’Connor’s voice is incredible and the moment the two of them shared was so beautiful. This initial video went viral and was written up by many different online outlets.
Still, it wasn’t their last performance together.
Beyond that, the two also performed another song together, namely “Memory” from the musical Cats.
As we mentioned, O’Connor is a professional singer and performer herself, and had been performing in “Cats” at theaters in London’s West End.
This second performance was just as beautiful as the first and was a result of O’Connor running into Robinson again by accident as she was passing through the station! The two immediately greeted each other like old friends and decided to do another song together.
As O’Connor said herself, she was happy to see that Robinson was still there performing!
Needless to say, stories like this can really warm your heart.
Although the internet gives us access to all kinds of heart-warming human moments and spontaneous performances, it also gives us plenty of distractions and content that’s ultimately just staged for a reaction. In the case of these videos, the connection between these two unlikely performers is so genuine.
Thanks to Claire and Denis on their awesome performances! Check out the full video below:
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