A music scholarship took me from my unremarkable local school in Doncaster to Stonyhurst College in 1973 at the age of 14, writes Jonathan Plowright. As I had already shown a natural ability for playing the piano, my mother, who unknown to me had been diagnosed with cancer, organised the audition so my future education would be taken care of in her absence. She changed the course of my life forever, but the teacher I had there would eventually inspire me to keep to that course. I initially studied with the excellent director of music and organist at Stonyhurst, Anthony John, who soon realised I needed more specialised piano tuition, and so it was arranged that I would study with his old professor from the Royal Academy of Music, Alexander Kelly. Himself a pupil of Harold Craxton at the ac