The Duchess of Cambridge has delighted fans with a beautiful piano performance at her Christmas carol concert.
Kate, who has played the piano since she was a young girl and took comfort in it during the Covid lockdowns, joined singer Tom Walker for a performance of his song ‘For Those Who Can’t Be Here’.
The pair got together for top-secret rehearsals in a recording studio ahead of the concert, Royal Carols: Together At Christmas, which was broadcast tonight.
Kate hosted the event as a thank you to the people who have supported their communities during the pandemic.
Tom described the Duchess as ‘lovely, kind and warm hearted’ and said she ‘smashed’ her performance, which was broadcast on ITV.
Speaking about the experience of working with her, he said: ‘It was truly an honour playing alongside The Duchess for Royal Carols: Together at Christmas. Without doubt, it was a once in a lifetime experience.
‘I thought she absolutely smashed the performance; it’s not easy to just jump behind a piano with a bunch of musicians you’ve never played with before and record live takes to camera, but she completely nailed it.’
Walker, a
British singer-songwriter known for his hit Leave A Light On, said he was approached by the duchess to perform at the carol service after meeting her at a charity event.Walker said: ‘I didn’t even know she played piano.
‘It was very secret, very secret – even the studio didn’t know what was going on. We were sitting on opposite sides of the room for Covid, rehearsing.
‘So we got together, we rehearsed the song like nine times and by the end of it she’d absolutely nailed it, and then she went away for a couple of days and practised it, and then we finally got to do the recording of it.
‘And I was really impressed because it’s one thing playing along with me in a studio, just the two of us, but then to jump straight in to playing with a live string quartet and a pianist and two backing singers, all of which she’d never met before, and then doing live takes in front of the camera – that’s a whole other jump from jamming.’
Kate also won praise for her performance from celebrities, with Piers Morgan dubbing her ‘ballsy’.
The duchess gained her grade three piano and grade five theory and she was taught by Daniel Nicholls until she was 13.
In a recorded introduction to the service, Kate paid tribute to the ‘inspirational’ people who have served their communities during the ‘bleak time’ of the pandemic.
Kate said: ‘We wanted to say a huge thank you to all those amazing people out there who have supported their communities.
‘We also wanted to recognise those whose struggles perhaps have been less visible too.’
The future Queen said the country had been through ‘such a bleak time’ and had faced ‘many challenges’, including the loss of loved ones, while frontline workers had been under ‘immense pressure’.
She added that while people had been ‘more emotionally and socially distanced and isolated from each other’, this separation had helped people to realise ‘how much we need each other’ and the importance of acts of kindness.
The service was attended by those Kate and William had spent time with during recent engagements, as well as members of the armed forces involved in Operation Pitting to evacuate British nationals and eligible Afghans from Afghanistan, young carers, faith leaders and those who may have been more vulnerable or isolated during the pandemic.
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