French street musician theory ‘one of 300 about Piano Man’

A THEORY that the so-called Piano Man is a French street musician has neither been proven nor discounted, and is one of 300 identities that are being investigated, his social worker said yesterday.

A 33-year-old Polish illegal immigrant approached police in Rome, Italy, yesterday, after spotting the mystery man’s photograph in a newspaper, and claimed he knew him.

He said he was sure the pianist, who has not spoken since he was found wandering aimlessly near the beach in Minster on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England, was Steven Villa Masson, with whom he worked in the French resort of Nice.

Social worker Michael Camp, who has been looking after the ‘Piano Man’ since he was found on April 7 wearing a dripping wet suit and tie, said yesterday:

“He might be him but at the same time he might not be. There are 300-plus other names that we have got.”

A West Kent NHS Trust spokesman said they had had contact from Australia, Canada, Sweden, Holland and Italy about the pianist.

Polish mime artist Dariusz Dydymski, who lived with a “piano genius” named Mr Masson in Nice for about a month, said: “I am 99% certain the man in England is the man I knew as Steven Villa Masson.

“The face and the stature are the same but above all it is the hands that have convinced me. There is one difference though to when I knew him: he had brown hair but now it is blond.”

He added: “He is a piano genius and plays heavenly Chopin but he also plays Liszt and Bach amazingly.

A police spokeswoman in Rome said earlier of Mr Dydymski: “We have taken a full statement from him and have passed it to police in Britain through Interpol and the information has also been passed to France.

More than 620 people have contacted a helpline set up to identify the ‘Piano Man’, who does not speak, but who stunned carers by giving a four-hour virtuoso piano recital. All efforts to communicate with the shy and agitated man, who is in his 20s or early 30s, have failed, leaving experts baffled over his identity.

Bizarrely, all labels from his clothes had been removed, making it harder to find out who he is.

Staff at Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham gave him a pen and paper in the hope he would write his name or draw his country’s flag. Instead, he drew highly detailed pictures of a grand piano, showing not only the keys, but also the intricate inner workings of the instrument.

When Mr Camp showed him a piano in the hospital chapel, he played classical music “beautifully”. Since then, he has written music, but remains mute.

Interpreters from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania were brought in to see if he was from Eastern Europe, and possibly an asylum seeker, but no one could get through to him.

He is being held in a secure mental health unit in Kent until a full assessment has been carried out.