University pianist strikes a chord in new Netflix drama
A musician working at the University is celebrating playing a key role on the soundtrack to a hit TV show.
Multi-instrumentalist Sophie Lim, from the Student Information Service (SIS), performs piano on the heart-wrenching rendition of Sting’s classic track ‘Fragile’ for acclaimed new Netflix drama ‘Adolescence’. For anyone who’s watched the show, the song’s lyrics take on an altogether more poignant meaning in scenes that are both captivating and traumatic in equal measure.
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime’s argument
That nothing comes from violence, and nothing ever could.
The ‘violence’ in this context centres on a 13-year-old schoolboy named Jamie Miller, who’s arrested for the shocking murder of a female classmate, Katie Leonard. At first glance, Katie appears absent from the show’s narrative, but what some viewers might not realise is her presence is actually felt throughout the series via the soundtrack. The final haunting vocals are sung by actress Emelia Holliday, who portrays the schoolgirl stabbed to death at the hands of her young assailant. Schoolchildren from South Kirkby – where the drama was filmed – joined Emelia to record the song, accompanied on the piano by a musician from Leeds.
Sophie Lim is a SIS Advisor – a position she’s held for more than a year following her graduation from the University in December 2023 with a First in Music. And it was through her University connections that the 23-year-old landed her first ever TV job. Friend and former LUU Music Society Composers’ Collective colleague Mia Windsor – an experimental musician currently completing a funded PhD project at Leeds – recommended Sophie to ‘Adolescence’ composers David Ridley and Aaron May. In their search for female input into the score from someone living and working in the region where the series is set, they spotted Mia’s work on the web. When they explained they required the services of a pianist, Sophie’s name was the first that sprang to mind. The rest, as they say, is history!
It was a crazy, lucky situation! I worked on a piece Mia composed a couple of years ago. We had a great time, but she doesn’t play piano, so it was lovely of her to think of me in this way. David contacted me. I sent him a few amateur recordings because I don’t have a professional portfolio. I didn’t expect anything to come from it, but he said they were exactly what they were looking for. I feel incredibly lucky they were prepared to take a chance on me and believed in me. It was an awesome experience.
Moving Moment
It wasn’t long afterwards that a driver in a smart new Tesla pulled up outside Sophie’s Hyde Park home to whisk her off to the recording sessions. Rather than a swanky studio, however, Sophie was taken to a South Kirkby community hall to meet the composers, Producer Jo Johnson and Director Philip Barantini. The only furniture was a grand piano and rows of chairs for the children. Sophie said: “I had to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) and the details were quite vague at first – they couldn’t even tell me what the show’s working title was. I was only sent the music a week before, together with a bit more information about the storyline.
“I was really excited to eventually find out what the song was. I hadn’t heard it before, but I could see the vision they had and why they wanted it to be a stripped back and more haunting version of the original. The music plays during a particularly poignant moment in the series at the end of the second episode. They wanted it to be really moving – to evoke the heavy emotion of the scene. I felt it perfectly captured this – the fragility of the situation; that it’s incredibly difficult to be a child in this world right now.”
Team support
In addition to friends and family, Sophie’s other big supporters are her work colleagues, who arranged cover when she needed time off for the recording. Sophie added: “My team has been really supportive. I told my supervisor and she was really pleased for me. I was working with another manager in SIS recently, who was talking about how she’d seen Adolescence. When I told her I’d played on one of the songs she was so proud and told everyone in the group chat! They were all congratulating me, which was so lovely. I feel so lucky to be a part of this team.”
While Sophie hopes her TV debut will lead to bigger and better things, she’s in no rush to leave the University. She said: “I love my job at Leeds. I’m passionate about student support – I was an ambassador for the School of Music while I was still studying here, helping out at events like open days. “I applied to work at the University in January 2024 via the Grade 4 Academy and was appointed to the SIS the following month. It’s the perfect job for me. I can immerse myself in my work but I can leave it here when I go home, which gives me the freedom to pursue my music interests.
I’m so happy to be working at a university where people genuinely care about your development. It’s such an exciting and supportive environment to be in.
by Richard Parker
26th March 2025
