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Darrel Smith is a pianist from Derry who recently took part in a new series on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Northern Ireland follows 13 young people from the city as they take their first steps to fulfilling their musical ambitions.

Darrel has been getting lessons from City of Culture artist in residence Neil Cowley throughout the year.

Music City, which started on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ One NI last month, with a further two episodes available online, joined this group of potential future stars as they attempted to make their musical dreams come true. The 13 young people, who are all part of the Derry~Londonderry UK City Of Culture 2013 Music Promise education project, range from singers and DJs to pianists, drummers and harpists.

Pop star Katy B, known for hits such as Broken Record, Lights On and 5AM, was the young people’s mentor for the series. Katy B – aided by Derry-based singer and guitarist Glenn Rosborough and local harpist and music teacher Jenny Grant – put her experience in the music industry as a successful performer and hit-maker to good use to set each young person a challenge to help take them to the next step of their musical journey and bring their talents to the fore.

Katy B said: "I’m so glad that I was given this opportunity to work with such talented young people. They all rose to the challenges they were given with such enthusiasm and bravery and I’m so excited for their futures that lie ahead, Derry is such an inspiring city! It now feels like my second home!"

Music City is a seven part series made by Alleycats TV for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Northern Ireland. Five programmes in the series will be broadcast on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ One NI at 7.30 on Monday nights from 25 November and two further programmes of the series will also be made available online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03js1wk