A PARTIALLY-sighted pianist who is now in her 80s said she never expected to be invited to perform on a hit Channel Four show - and has praised the overwhelming response she has received having wowed an audience.

Pearl Fawcett-Adriano, who lives in Darton, applied to appear on The Piano and, following approval from a panel of producers, was asked to meet host Claudia Winkleman for an interview before performing at Sheffield Railway Station.

The 83-year-old, whose sight is deteriorating due to having a severe impairment because of macular degeneration, used stickers as guidelines on the piano’s keys to help her.

She played Granada by Agustin Lara, with her performance - which took place last summer - airing on television last month.

Pearl, who started playing the piano at the age of eight, told the Chronicle: “It’s such a special programme and so I applied - with help, of course - to go on.

“I recorded a video, sent in a photo and a little bit about my background - it was quite a long process but then I was invited to perform.

“It’s something I never expected at my time of life.

“I’ve lost most of my central vision, so I can just about see what’s in front of me if it’s close.

“Claudia was so kind to me and helped me place the guidelines on the keys - it’s a very exciting piece of music and I felt exhilarated to play it.

“I was married for almost 31 years but my husband, Dante, was 78 and had a stroke.

“I looked after him and my mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s.

“Everything else had to go by the wayside.

“I think those who have done that will know what I mean when I say you can become an almost ‘non-person’ - you do everything for the other people and it’s only years later that you realise just how much energy you’ve used.

“But my husband and my mother were the two people most dear to me, so that’s what I had to do.

“There’s a line from a song and it goes along the lines of you’ve go to pick yourself up, dust yourself down and start all over again - and that’s what I’ve done.

“The last few years, I started to come back to the piano - it’s my main pleasure and it’s lovely to be able to still play to people.”

Pearl, who sometimes performs at Emmanuel Methodist Church on Huddersfield Road, was an award-winning accordionist in her earlier life.

Her first broadcast on BBC Radio, and also television, was at the age of 13, after which she appeared many times.

She became a junior world champion on the accordion in Ancona, Italy and the following year she became the senior world champion in Hamburg, Germany.

Pearl was the was the first to teach accordion at a Conservatoire of Music in Great Britain, and went on to perform concerts at London’’s Royal Albert Hall, Moscow’’s Tchaikovsky Hall and Leningrad’’s Philharmonic Hall.

Her friend, Marny Barton, paid tribute to Pearl’s ‘outstanding’ talent.

“I heard about her from my daughter before I came to live in Barnsley two years ago and I was welcomed into Pearl’s fold immediately,” she added.

“Her performance on The Piano was very meaningful - altogether she is a fabulous person, astute, perceptive, welcoming and kind.

’She is a great humour and personality for Barnsley.”