He plays like a virtuoso, but authorities are still baffled as to the identity of the mysterious, silent Piano Man, writes Lynne O'Donnell in London.
The world knows him simply as Piano Man, his sad plaintive eyes staring from beneath a shock of white-blonde hair offering no clue to what trauma has pushed him behind a wall of silence.
His virtuoso piano recitals have marked him as a man of rare musical talent, but have done little to help solve a mystery that has gripped Britain and drawn the attention of Hollywood movie producers.
Handed pen and paper, he drew an expertly detailed picture of a grand piano which appears to be standing on a stage awaiting the attentions of a maestro - lid raised, stool poised, it stands in the circle of a spotlight.
Anxious when approached, the young man is transformed at the piano into a confident, relaxed performer whose repertoire includes vignettes from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, as well as what are believed to be his own compositions.
Yet more than six weeks after he was found wandering, soaking wet, on a deserted beach, he is yet to utter a word, and the hundreds of telephone calls and emails to a national missing persons hotline have yet to yield any solid clues about who he is and where he comes from.
Even his clothes lacked any identifying marks as all labels, intriguingly, had been cut from his smart black suit and white shirt. And while he appeared to have emerged from the sea, social workers and medical staff caring for him said he betrayed no signs of having been involved in a struggle.
Despite information pouring in from all points of the globe, placing him variously in Italy, France, Sweden, Canada, Japan, the United States and Australia, all leads have so far petered out and investigators remain confounded. The man, whose age is estimated around the late 20s or early 30s, is being cared for at a psychiatric unit in Kent, near where he was found, on the Isle of Sheppey, on April 7th. Attempts to force him to talk by keeping him from the piano have been unsuccessful, and have drawn criticism from the emergency social worker assigned to his case, Michael Camp, who said it is only at the keyboard that Piano Man comes alive.
"When he plays the piano his demeanour is completely different," Camp said. "He is completely immersed in the music and the piano." Around 300 possible identities for Piano Man were being investigated, and Camp said it could take weeks for police to sift through the massive volume of information.
Piano Man first came to public attention early this week, when exasperated authorities released his photograph and the grand piano sketch he made when staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital, where he was first taken after being found, handed him pen and paper hoping he would write his name and address.
Camp said that upon seeing Piano Man's drawing, hospital staff led him to the piano in the hospital chapel.
"It was quite emotional seeing him turn from this incredibly anxious, reticent character to a virtuoso at ease with the people around him," Camp said, adding that while playing "he is completely relaxed and completely oblivious to people around him."
At other times, however, the young man betrays signs of extreme anxiety, bordering on terror, whenever he is approached. Camp said that as soon as he finishes playing the piano, his persona reverts to that of a "terrified, anxious man".
The man is believed to be suffering from trauma-induced amnesia, a condition that would render him incapable of offering up any information about himself, but would allow him to remain adept at expressing himself through music, according to experts.
Prof Michael Kopelman, of King's College, London, said that in both neurological disease and psychological forms of amnesia, the ability to play music, which he described as a well-rehearsed skill, is preserved. The severity of the amnesia would depend on the trauma behind it, and memory recovery usually began with older memories, through a reverse chronological order to more recent events.
PIANO MAN'S SILENCE has drawn a broad range of theories about his identity. According to one, he is a repetiteur, or coach, with a ballet company, which would explain his knowledge of Swan Lake. Another theory revolves around the piano sketch and suggests he is a concert pianist who has suffered a trauma of such magnitude that he has lost his memory and ability to speak.
A Polish mime artist in Italy told Roman police he knew Piano Man as an itinerant performer he had met in Nice, but the man he identified was found at home with his family. Other media reports have attempted to link him to a conman who turned up in Canada years ago in similar circumstances trying to claim citizenship.
Some reports have speculated that Piano Man is an illegal immigrant attempting to thwart British bureaucracy, or that he is an idiot savant similar to Dustin Hoffman's character in the movie Rain Man.
The missing persons hotline has received calls from film producers intrigued by the entertainment potential of Piano Man's story - though it so far lacks an ending, happy or otherwise.
Bard Dorris, of the Hollywood management and production company Smart Entertainment, was quoted in local papers saying he was was eager to obtain the rights to what he described as "an amazing story".
"The piano man's situation makes us ask so many questions about issues such as the fragility of the human mind, the nature of communication and the importance, or unimportance, of identity," he said. "Great stories raise, and often attempt to answer, questions about the nature of the human mind, how it works, who we are. The piano man's story frames that in a mystery - what is at stake is this man's identity."