Mystery of the 'Piano Man' Continues With Claim He Is French Street Musician

The Piano Man was found in April on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, England. The patient, tall and thin and blond and dressed in a suit and tie, was soaking wet. He will not speak, but has drawn a detailed picture of a piano, and has performed parts of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and works by John Lennon on a piano in the hospital chapel.

He continues to perform on a piano donated by a newspaper. According to the AP, he seems to be an "accomplished amateur" rather than a concert pianist.

No one has been able to get him to talk, including interpreters from Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania, who were brought in on speculation that the patient was seeking asylum.

Among the 600 calls and emails received in response to a photograph released earlier this week was one from a Polish mime named Dariusz Dydymski, who says that the Piano Man is a French street musician named Steven Villa Masson, with whom he worked in Nice, France.

Michael Camp, the patient's social worker, said that officials would follow every lead, including Dydymski's. "I'm concerned that we don't just stop at the stop of this particular person," Camp said. "He might be him but at the same time he might not be."

Calls are coming in from as far away as Canada, Sweden, Holland, and Australia.

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