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It started with Elizabeth Riordan, 35, from Geelong. \u201cI always wanted a family,\u201d she said on the new season of the ABC\u2019s The Piano<\/a>. But during years of fertility treatment, \u201cwe unfortunately lost seven babies\u201d.<\/p>\n Then Archie, now 5, came along. Elizabeth settled down at a public piano at Sydney Airport and played a song of her own, Finally, that was originally written out of hope to have a child and had become a celebration. \u201cYou took your time, darling of mine,\u201d she sang. \u201cWith open arms, you\u2019ll be held high.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m pretty sure I wasn\u2019t the only viewer choking up on the couch at home.<\/p>\n Then there was Peter Salmon, a 92-year-old Aboriginal stockman who is the last surviving speaker of the Indigenous language Thiinma. He met Rosie Sitorius, 38, whose job was tracking down and recording Aboriginal languages, and they became friends.<\/p>\n \u201cPeter is a connection to the very origins of this country,\u201d she said. \u201cTo be doing this work, it\u2019s carrying the stories, the wisdom, that Peter has on for the next generation.\u201d<\/p>\n Rosie sat down at the airport piano and played another personal composition, Warri Yungu Warri Paba, in that almost extinct language, about how rain brings life to Peter\u2019s Country. He joined in with a gravelly voice that spoke of stockyards, desert dust and venerable age.<\/p>\n Related Article I had to wipe away a tear.<\/p>\n Then there was the very nervous Dominic Gertners, 17, who was born in South Korea and adopted as a baby by an Australian family. \u201cGrowing up as an adopted kid in a small town and being a person of a different ethnicity to everyone else, I just never felt like I fit in,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve had anxiety for upwards of 10 years now.\u201d<\/p>\n While Dominic had only ever played the piano in his bedroom, he sat down at Sydney Airport and delivered a performance of Benson\u2019s Boone\u2019s Beautiful Things that was drop-dead, stone-cold, five-star gorgeous, while his proud mum watched. \u201cFor a while there, it was rough,\u201d he sang. \u201cBut lately, I\u2019ve been doing better.\u201d<\/p>\n It was too much.<\/p>\n No doubt emotions are closer to the surface in these unsettled times. But even if they weren\u2019t, the power of someone playing something so meaningful to them on piano would have stirred them up.<\/p>\n Host Amanda Keller<\/a> often seems to shed a tear during The Piano. In this episode, star musicians Andrea Lam and Guy Sebastian<\/a> also seemed overwhelmed hearing the backstories of contestants.<\/p>\n In its second season, The Piano has to be the most emotional show on TV. A blast of warm-hearted, feelgood energy.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick Based on a British format, the show recruits everyday pianists from around the country to play in a public setting \u2013 train stations, markets and shopping centres as well as the airport \u2013 with Lam and Sebastian selecting one performer from each episode for a climactic concert at Sydney\u2019s City Recital Hall.<\/p>\n I dipped into the first season<\/a> but didn\u2019t stay with it. It felt like the producers were dragging things out and milking emotional storylines.<\/p>\n As someone who had piano lessons for a while and wish I\u2019d continued, I tried again this season. My scepticism ebbed away when Erin Mortimer, 38, played a touching song she\u2019d written, Lullaby For The Old Man, about her father, former champion rugby league halfback Steve Mortimer, who has dementia. \u201cGrief pays me a visit every night,\u201d she sang.<\/p>\n That powerful moment was at the end of episode one. Episode three had the emotional storylines above \u2013 and a couple more \u2013 that the producers of other TV talent shows would kill for.<\/p>\n But the joy of The Piano is none of these performers want to be stars. They haven\u2019t gone on TV to have music careers or win prizes. Some play piano for their enjoyment; others are expressing difficult emotions or treating it like therapy to get through dark times. With 88 black and white keys, they\u2019re creating the soundtracks to their lives.<\/p>\n With the manipulation of storylines the downside of so many reality formats, the authenticity of an Elizabeth, Peter, Dominic or Erin elevates The Piano.<\/p>\n Executive producer Gemma Murphy says it\u2019s important it\u2019s not a competition.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s never about who\u2019s \u2018better\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about feeling something. We\u2019re drawn to people who have a deep, personal connection to the piano and who let that come through in their playing.\u201d<\/p>\n While skill is wonderful, \u201cwhat truly matters is that moment where music and humanity meet\u201d.<\/p>\n Murphy, fellow executive producer Bethan Briegel-Jones and their team had to search for pianists for the first series because no one knew what the show was.<\/p>\n \u201cBy series two, things shifted,\u201d she says. \u201cWe started receiving more applications and tips from people who wanted to nominate themselves or someone they knew. That\u2019s been lovely, but we still go out and search for those unexpected stories. Often the people we find don\u2019t think of themselves as \u2018interesting enough for TV\u2019 \u2013 and they couldn\u2019t be more wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n Related Article It\u2019s fascinating to consider whether other instruments could have the same power to move as the piano in a public setting. A communal saxophone could work, with musicians bringing their own mouthpiece. There might also be potential for a show based on the guitar, violin or DJ turntable.<\/p>\n Murphy thinks there is something special about the piano, especially a street piano, which invites passersby in to play. \u201cIt\u2019s familiar, and often deeply personal,\u201d she says. \u201cThat said, it\u2019s fun to imagine how the format could evolve.<\/p>\n \u201cOther instruments could absolutely bring something new and exciting to the table \u2026 although I might draw the line at the recorder. My six-year-old is currently learning, and I can safely say the world isn\u2019t quite ready for a public recorder series just yet.\u201d<\/p>\n The Piano airs at 7.30pm on Sundays on the ABC and streams on ABC iview. <\/p>\n Want more TV? We\u2019ve got you.Newsletter: Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday<\/a>.Outlander: The Scottish time-travelling hit is coming to an end. Its Australian star David Berry talks about the show\u2019s other great love story<\/a>.The Testaments: Ann Dowd was terrifying in The Handmaid\u2019s Tale. She thinks you should be more scared of its sequel<\/a>.The Miniature Wife: Succession star Matthew Macfadyen had his pick of scripts when he said goodbye to the billionaire Roy family. This is what he chose to do next<\/a>.Your Friends and Neighbours review: Season two find\u2019s Jon Hamm<\/a>\u2019s light-fingered thief up against a formidable foe.Streaming guides: What to watch this week<\/a>; and what to watch this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":["post-594606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/4d81af239796761a8868faa829a0ccb051ca8314.jpeg\")
The everyday pianists from episode three, season two of The Piano include Elizabeth Riordan (bottom right), Peter Salmon and Rosie Sitorius (middle row, second and third from left) and Dominic Gertners (top row, left).ABC<\/p>\n![\"Kristen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/f9d9febfde1cea992951cb8cf85eb00869475be2.jpeg\")
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Host of The Piano, Amanda Keller, with Andrea Lam and Guy Sebastian.ABC<\/p>\n![\"Simon](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775698275_363_a48cfbe9637b2e3103106ecad01feac14cb1cbb6.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Season](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/86abbeba71be6c438cf33dd1deaee52ca73e8b48.jpeg\")
Season one of The Piano featured Harry Connick Jr, pictured with fellow judge Andrea Lam and host Amanda Keller.<\/p>\n![\"Aaron](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e5179d7e4d1e3503e3a5cbe31c320fef423bb77f.jpeg\")
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