When 23-year-old Ellis Arey won the 2022 Leeds Conservatoire Piano Competition sponsored by Besbrode Pianos, the owner of the UK’s largest piano store in Holbeck noticed him not just for his incredible playing.
“He had these really unique black and white jazz shoes,” Melvin Besbrode says. “And swagger.” Like Melvin, Ellis was from a working-class background. A rarity in the rarefied world of classical piano. The pair hit it off. And so when an opportunity arose as part of Leeds 2023: Year of Culture for artists to pitch ideas for a short film in response to the question: What’s worth fighting for?, Ellis put in an application, supported by Melvin and creative agency Cause UK.
” Then came the boxing. “I got jumped by this group of kids that beat the heck out of me. It made me so insecure – my pride was hurt – and I thought, damn, I don’t want to feel this scared. Boxing would instil confidence in myself. I just wanted to do it so I could know how to fight, and get to be tough. 'But as I started to get into it, I realised it’s not just learning to fight.
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