Given he’s been a superstar for decades, it’s hard to imagine that Harry Connick Jr was once a young up-and-coming artist. Believe it or not, there was a time when the musician and actor was still learning the ropes – but it was when he was a preschooler!
“We had a piano in the house, and I’ve been playing it since I was three,” he tells TV WEEK of his childhood in the jazz-obsessed city of New Orleans.
“I started taking lessons when I was about five, maybe six years old. And, because I grew up in a very musical city, there was access to music everywhere. My parents were very supportive – I was able to take classical music lessons and go out and hear jazz from a very early age. I was just in love with music.”
Harry, 57, tells TV WEEK that his first public performance was at the ripe old age of five, and the gifted youngster stuck with it until landing his big break.
“I did the music for the film When Harry Met Sally…, and that was the album that turned me from being a guy who’d put out a couple of jazz records to a recording artist who was selling millions of albums pretty quickly. That kind of fell into my lap when I was 20 years old, so I got really lucky very early on.”
He also credits the support of more seasoned musicians in New Orleans, who took the talented young pianist and singer under their wing and helped him navigate the buzzing jazz scene.
“New Orleans is the type of town where the older musicians really look out for the younger ones,” Harry explains. “They teach you things and they’re very supportive – it’s not really about keeping things to yourself. They really want to share the information and help the youngsters come along.”
Now, Harry is taking on this role of mentor to prodigiously talented pianists of all ages on the heartwarming new six-part ABC series The Piano.
The show sees passionate piano players given the chance to play in a public space – think Central Station, Sydney, and Melbourne’s Preston Market – while they are secretly observed by Harry and award-winning Aussie classical pianist Andrea Lam.
The pair choose one musician to mentor in each episode, culminating in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the budding pianist to perform in a concert at Sydney’s City Recital Hall.
Featuring primary school-aged prodigies, a V8 Supercar driver, a grave-digger who is rocking a mullet, an Alzheimer’s sufferer, a drag queen and a young-at-heart 103-year-old, The Piano brings viewers an eclectic mix of seriously talented Australians, who all have different relationships with music.
“What’s interesting about this show is that it’s not really about giving musical advice so much as listening to their individual stories and trying to figure out what they’re trying to accomplish,” Harry explains.
“Most of these folks really aren’t trying to be professional musicians.
“They’re just people who have a very personal relationship with the piano and then have an opportunity to perform in this concert. So it’s
more about me helping them put together a performance, which, for them, is really the performance of a lifetime.”
In that way, it’s different to Harry’s other TV gig as a judge on American Idol and Australian Idol, which is all about unearthing the stars of tomorrow.
“[On Idol] you’re looking for people who have superstar quality. You’re kind of judging their ability to survive these different rounds to become a star,” Harry muses.
“So The Piano is a unique show and it’s much more relatable than Idol. A lot of people around the world play the piano, and [this series] allows people to connect in a different way.”
What the two shows do have in common is everyday Aussies with levels of talent that never cease to amaze Harry.
“The talent here is world-class. I mean, musicians, actors, visual arts – the talent pool is infinitely deep,” he gushes. “The food, the culture – it’s just a remarkable place.”
This love of Australia is shared by the rest of the Connick family. Harry and his wife, former model Jill Goodacre Connick, have three adult daughters who all decided to make the move Down Under after their dad’s stint working on Australian Idol in 2023.
Georgia, 29, Kate, 27, and 22-year-old Charlotte have made themselves right at home in Melbourne, with Kate Connick following her dad’s forays into acting (Copycat and Will & Grace), by landing a role on Neighbours last year.
“We’re going to spend a lot of time down here,” Harry says of his daughters’ new home base.
“I love it and my wife loves it. Any chance I have to come back, I always do.”
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