Famous People Who Learned to Play the Piano as Adults - Hark Music School Singapore (2024)

• March 5, 2018

A lot of us often think that learning to play the piano should be started while one is young, as it takes time and effort for it to be mastered. However, there now programs these days that offer piano lessons for adults, as there is a growing need to cater to learners under this age bracket. Besides, there are also people who have started late in becoming piano players, and they have eventually become successful in this craft.

Some of them are celebrities who opted to study music in college, as well as those who learned the instrument in preparation for a character role. Among these celebrities whom you could look up to in terms of studying the piano as an adult are:

1. Adrien Brody

Adrien Brody is one of the most prolific method actors in Hollywood today, and he still holds the record of winning the Oscar award for Best Actor at the age of 27. His award-winning role was the titular character in the film “The Pianist,” based on the life of a Polish musician in wartime Warsaw.

But prior to this movie role, Brody didn’t know how to play the said instrument. He underwent intensive training in order not only to play the piano, but to master its techniques who he can play skillfully throughout the film.

2. Holly Hunter

Another actress who learned to play the piano as an adult is Holly Hunter. The Oscar winner for her role in the movie “The Piano” also didn’t know how to play the instrument before. In order to prepare for the role, she underwent piano lessons for adults with Margie Balter, a Los Angeles-based piano teacher and coach for many celebrities.

Hunter not only wanted to learn how to play the piano, but also get to know its fundamental techniques, and these gave her the ability to provide a stellar performance in the movie, which eventually led her to winning Hollywood’s most coveted award.

3. Dirk Bogarde

British Dirk Bogarde was most known for his portrayal of composer Frank Liszt in the latter’s biopic, “Songs Without End” in 1961. But Bogarde also had no prior training in playing the piano back then, and bagging on the role prompted him to undergo intensive piano lessons for adults, not only to learn how to play, but to read notes and understand how Frank Liszt himself saw through life as a musician.

4. Tom Cruise

In the movie “Interview with the Vampire,” there is a scene where Tom Cruise played a Haydn sonata on the piano. His piano playing skills were undoubtedly superb, nobody would suspect that he didn’t know how to play the instrument before starring on the said film.

It was also Balter who trained Cruise to play the piano, but this time only the said Haydn sonata. She and the actor spent over five weeks of intensive training just for him to be able to play the piece completely, and as well provided him guides as to how to play it even if he didn’t know how to read notes.