Moving a grand piano is a logistical nightmare few pianists like to think about – until they’re forced to. 

Prior to speaking to Limelight, pianist Kathryn Selby’s morning has been consumed by the problem of bringing a new grand piano into her house. She is contemplating defeat.

“According to the piano movers, it’s too long to come up the stairs and we can’t crane it in either, or start knocking holes in the walls,” Selby says. “I’m so disappointed, and I literally don’t know what to do next.”

Kathryn Selby: “You never stop discovering new things”. Photo supplied

Selby had a lot invested in that new piano. Her old one – which she’s had since the age of seven – needs a complete restoration and she has a lot of practising to do before airing one of the most challenging pieces she’s played in a Selby & Friends program – This Mirror Has Three Faces by the Soviet-born, now United States-based Lera Auerbach.

Highly regarded in Europe (and somewhat notorious in the US for her 2013 a cappella opera The Blind, during which the audience wore blindfolds...