Pianist pays moving tribute to his foster parents in winning final performance at competition

Brad Kella is not just a talented pianist but also a wonderful human. He recently won the British TV show "The Piano" and in the finale, he made sure to thank his foster parents in a very special way. Kella, from a suburb of North Liverpool, was placed in foster care when he was seven years old. "I was so confused, I remember hanging on to the railings outside my foster parents, and just didn’t want to go in,” Kella shared during his first audition of the show, reports MyModernMet.

But his experience with his foster parents, Ev and Frank, changed his life for the better. Kella initially thought he would just spend one night with them but ended up staying for more than 12 years. For the final round of the competition, he had to create an original composition. As a tribute to his foster parents, he named the beautiful piece "Ev and Frank." They were stunned and seen wiping their tears during his performance.

Naming his composition after his foster parents was fitting given all they had done for him. When Kella first asked for a piano as a child, they immediately agreed. He shared that Ev contributed some money from the care system's budget to buy him a piano, changing his life. Though he can't read music, he taught himself how to play the instrument. "I used to sit there for hours and hours and figured out how different chords made me feel. I don't read music at all, but each individual piano key just takes me somewhere," Kella said. "I don’t know if it’s a God-given gift, but I get literally lost in music. I could express my emotions through the piano, which helped massively with my mental health. The piano saved my life.”

Music also helped him to find himself. He shared that when he plays the instrument, he has a "unique feeling" about himself. He said, “That I was my own person. I owe it to my foster parents because, before them, I had no one there who believed I would be capable of doing such a thing as playing piano.” He got into this competition to encourage other foster children. He shared, “I want to make my family proud, my city proud and hopefully inspire people in similar situations. Frank and Ev gave me belief. It goes to show that if a kid is nurtured and loved, they’ll be fine. Kids have tough starts but it’s not their fault. We’re normal people, capable people, just searching for a new beginning," reports The Guardian.

Before his final performance, he told everyone that he had the "best foster parents" in the whole world and went on to share how they helped him dream and achieve the same. "They gave me the capability to dream, to believe that anything was actually possible and there’s a stigma with kids in foster care and we genuinely get seen as just a number. I want to show people what a number can do,” Kella said. “Kids in care are literally just treated as a number. We are down in the system as a number. I feel like I could be a voice to kids like that, and I hope I just give them more of a reason to keep trying, trying to achieve their dreams.”