Season three of The Piano is now airing on Channel 4, featuring a new face on the judging panel as Jon Batiste steps in for the much-loved Lang Lang.
Multi-award-winning musician Jon Batiste joins pop star Mika on the show, hosted by Claudia Winkleman. The series brings together some of the country’s best amateur pianists, who perform in front of passers-by at the UK’s busiest train stations.
In earlier seasons, world-famous pianist Lang Lang mentored the performers, with finalists getting the chance to play in a packed concert hall. Unfortunately, due to concert commitments overlapping with the filming schedule, Lang Lang had to step back from the show this season.
Advertisement But flying in from the U.S., Jon Batiste has stepped in and is already leaving his mark on the show with his broad musical expertise and lively presence. So, who is Jon Batiste—and where might you have seen him before?
Who is The Piano’s new mentor Jon Batiste?
The 38-year-old musician made his debut in 2005 with the album Time in New Orleans before heading to The Juilliard School, where he developed his talents as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, singer, and songwriter.
Between 2015 and 2022, Jon Batiste became a familiar face as the bandleader and musical director for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Reflecting on Jon’s seven-year tenure, Colbert said: “He can play basically every instrument over there. Give him an afternoon, he’ll learn how to play Mozart on a shoehorn.”
In 2020, Jon composed the music for Disney Pixar’s jazz-inspired animated film Soul and also performed the piano parts in the movie. The experience was deeply moving for him.
I was almost in tears, because you see your essence and you think: Wow, this is the first Black Pixar lead and we’re putting jazz culture out there in this massive way,
he told NPR.
His work on Soul earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score. In 2023, Jon was featured in the Netflix documentary American Symphony, which followed his journey as he created his first symphony—an effort that won him a Grammy for Best Music Film.
Jon Batiste has earned seven Grammy Awards to date, including the coveted Album of the Year for his record We Are.
I thought the fact that my family was there with me to witness that is incredible. It’s incredible. Just so much went into that moment: piano lessons, some civil rights marches.
Reflecting on the win, he told Rolling Stone:
It was so loud that I almost didn’t know it was me because they didn’t say my name until after the title. I was like, ‘Maybe that’s somebody else’s album that sounds like We Are.’
He continued
Jon is now a part of The Piano season three, joining as a mentor alongside Grace Kelly hitmaker Mika.
In an interview with Metro, Mika spoke about the unique dynamic Jon brings compared to Lang Lang: “When you end up between Lang Lang and then you’ve got Jon Batiste, they are both such excellent musicians with completely different genres. It was quite stimulating because he approaches repertoire in a different way to Lang Lang.”
Sometimes I had to explain to Lang Lang what ABBA was which in itself was so glorious because he was so pure. He knows all the classical music very well.
Mika also shared
[With Jon Batiste] it brought the level of conversation to a different kind of energy, it was stimulating and I think change is good.
He continued
Outside of the show, Jon Batiste has also held roles as the musical director at The Atlantic and serves as a patron of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.
The Piano airs every Sunday on Channel 4 at 9pm.