WED 19 Nov 2025, 2PM, KCL STRAND (Room S2.28)
Dr Sarah Nicolls, Visiting Senior Research Fellow in Music and in Engineering, will give a talk at KCL’s Strand Campus as part of the MARC Seminar Series. Sarah will be joined by Prof. Neil Thomas MBE, Director and Founder of Atelier One.
If you are unable to attend in person, you may use the following MS Teams link to attend the event virtually: MARC Seminar Talk – Rebuilding the Piano | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams
Sarah was also invited to talk about her piano rebuilding on BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live on Saturday 1 November 2025.
Book your free ticket here: Rebuilding the piano: Dr Sarah Nicolls & Prof Neil Thomas MBE
Abstract and short bios:
Since 1880, music and lifestyles have transformed. The piano has barely changed. 600,000 pianos sold every year are all traditional grands or uprights, heavy, outdated. The only technological evolution (digital keyboards) has stripped the strings, removing the acoustic, resonant experience.
Sarah Nicolls (First Light Pianos Founder and Innovate UK Women in Innovation winner) is a renowned concert pianist who has re-shaped the grand piano to make it vertical, making all of the strings fully accessible to the player to make music in a new way.
Finding that audiences saw the potential for a space-saving grand piano, and envisioning a lightweight, vertical grand piano, fit for the 21st Century, Sarah decided to pursue the fundamental question: could modern engineering make a lightweight piano possible?
Prof Neil Thomas MBE says Sarah’s LinkedIn message is the most interesting he’s ever received.
Neil is Founder of Atelier One, internationally-renowned, award-winning structural engineers, the creative brains behind iconic structures like World Building of the Year, Singapore’s ‘Gardens by the Bay’ and Anish Kapoor’s ‘Cloud Gate’ in Chicago. Neil is a Royal Designer for Industry, an Honorary Fellow of RIBA, winner of the IStructE medal. He leads the engineering team for ‘Building Lightness – Towards the First Light Pianos’: the project Sarah leads, supported by Innovate UK Creative Catalyst funding.
