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Watch a 5-year-old piano prodigy absolutely shred the ivories... while blindfolded

He's preparing to play Carnegie Hall before his 6th birthday.

Canva Photos

A 5-year-old piano prodigy has been invited to play at New York City's most prestigious concert call.

When I was five, the year was 1992. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was my whole world, I was getting ready to start kindergarten, and the most pressing issue on my mind was what to put on my Christmas list (Answer: A Sega Genesis). I took piano lessons around that age, but gave it up after a few years because I was more interested in other things (like my Sega Genesis).

Five-year-old Armenian-American Alec Van Khajadourian has taken a slightly different approach. His natural talent, passion, and work ethic have turned him into one of the most skilled pianists of his age in the entire world. In other words, he's a prodigy.

The child began showing his natural talents at the age of two. By age three-and-a-half, his piano teacher discovered that Alec has "perfect pitch" which is a rare and unique ability some people seem to be born with that allows them to correctly identify any note they hear. Think of it like photographic memory for music. Only about 1 in 10,000 people have the ability, which comes from a combination of genetic predisposition and early exposure to music.

When he was four, he performed his first recital alongside fifth graders (usually age 10-11). By five, he had won multiple international music competitions.

“When he started walking, he’d go right to the piano, tapping keys and smiling from ear to ear,” his father said in an interview. “We could tell right away that he had a special connection to music, and his skills have developed incredibly quickly.”

His parents have been posting some of Alec's incredible performances online to a social media account they manage, including one where he attempts an extremely challenging piece while wearing a blindfold.

The selection, one of Alec's favorites, is "Flamenco" by W. Gillock. It's an extremely inventive and upbeat piece that's fun to play and relatively easy to learn due to its composition and symmetry, but it requires some advanced hand, wrist, and finger techniques to pull off at a high level.

It also helps if you have your eyesight available. But that doesn't seem to hinder Alec very much in this clip.

After a video of Alec showing off his incredible perfect pitch skills went viral, local news stations around the country started picking up his story.

People just couldn't believe what those tiny hands could do on the ivories, and they got so much joy out of watching how much Alec loves to play.

"bravo to this young boy! The future looks bright" one commenter wrote.

"Cuteness overload and a little prodigy!" someone said.

"So cool, keep up the good work dude!" added another.

Did you know that there's actually a specific definition of the word "prodigy"?

I always thought a prodigy was any young kid who showed exceptional abilities in a given field. While that's accurate, the true definition is a little more specific.

Prodigy specifically refers to a child under the age of 10 who can perform at the level of a highly-trained adult.

Watching Alec play, it's clear that at the age of five he's well beyond the level that most adults could reach without serious training. The finger movement, wrist positioning, and playing speed are remarkable. And he does it all while his arms are too short to reach the whole set of keys—watch him slide up and down the bench so that he can play the full scale. It's incredible.

The obvious question that Alec's parents get a lot is whether they're pushing him into it. They say that Alec is completely self-driven and motivated, and that their job is to nurture his talent—as long as he wants them to.

“As long as it brings him joy, we’ll continue to support him," Alec's father said.

In interviews, they say Alec is really a normal five-year-old in most ways. He plays with the family dog, loves video games, and goes to pre-school. But his entire demeanor changes when he sits down at the piano. He brings an intense focus to his craft while still managing to take joy in playing.

“It makes me feel good,” Alec told NBC Los Angeles. “It feels calm.”

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

What's next for Alec? Well, his whole life, for starters. But more immediately, he's been invited to perform at Carnegie Hall and Disney Concert Hall.

The pianist was four years old when he decided he one day wanted to play at New York City's Carnegie Hall, one of the most storied and legendary musical venues in the United States. When his skills began going viral, it wasn't long before he received an invite to perform there. Achieving his lifelong dream before he even turns six—not bad!

He'll play at the NY Classic Debut Awards Gala Concert in July 2025.

Alec is also beginning to compose his own music. For reference, Mozart wrote his own first composition when he was only five and, suffice it to say, it still slaps.

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

I've always wondered why we're so fascinated with child prodigies.

It's inherently fun and surprising to see tiny people excelling at things far beyond their years. But I think it's also enjoyable to imagine what it would be like to find something you're passionate about and extremely good at from a young age. For many of us, it takes years and years, decades even, to find even one or the other—let alone both.

Prodigies, especially in the social media age, always face a critical transition at some point. When the novelty of their young age begins to wear off and people stop being amazed at their precociousness, what do they do? Do they double down on their craft and solidify themselves as a true master, or do they take the opportunity to let go of the fame and go live a more "normal" life?

Alec has a bright future ahead of him in music, that much is for sure. We can't wait to see where his talents take him, on the piano or otherwise.

Pop Culture

Piano doctor completely revives dilapidated Chicago airport piano during his 8 hour layover

The YouTuber had to mail his tools a week in advance to get the job done.

Photo credit: Screenshots from The Piano Doctor YouTube video

YouTuber The Piano Doctor revamped a "gross" airport piano during an eight-hour layover.

There’s something very depressing about a lonely airport piano that no one plays. There’s something even sadder about an airport piano that no one plays because it's fallen into disrepair. Josiah Jackson, who tunes and restores pianos for his massive YouTube channel The Piano Doctor (717,000 subscribers, as of this writing), encountered such an instrument at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. Three years later, he took action.

“When I [originally] sat down to play, I was so disappointed,” says Jackson, 21, in a recent video. “This piano sounded terrible, and the keys felt really sticky. … I made a mental note of it and decided, if I was ever flying through that airport again, I would take some time to fix it for free. So I purposely booked an eight-hour layover.”

But this charitable deed took a little maneuvering. Restoring pianos is a complicated task involving a lot of tools, including some sharp ones—not exactly compatible with airport security. His workaround: mailing everything he could a week in advance. The piano had now degraded even further, so Jackson had his work cut out for him—especially if he wanted to catch his flight.

The Piano Doctor mid-surgery: Josiah Jackson takes the instrument apart. Screenshot from The Piano Doctor video on YouTubewww.upworthy.com

There were mountains of dust inside the instrument, along with a couple of “major cracks in the sound board” and a gross amount of sticky goo. “Everywhere underneath the keys was coated with a thick, sticky, glue-like substance,” he says. “I was so confused—I’d never seen anything like this.” He eventually realized: The piano was located next to a bar, and people must have spilled their drinks down inside it, effectively “gluing” the keys in place.

Using his scaled-down tool kit, he performed an express version of a typical restoration, making compromises where necessary. (For example, he had to flip some green felt pieces upside down instead of replacing them, and he wasn’t able to replace one broken string.) Regardless, the transformation is incredible—and what matters most is that he got the instrument back to legitimate playing condition.

“The piano does sound good in person,” he narrates, before a clip where he performs a beautiful piece. “And it’s now open to the public again.” (By the way, the airport put up a helpful sign reading, “No drinks near piano, please!”)

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

If you find yourself at O’Hare, salute the Doctor’s kind deed by playing a few chords. According to an O’Hare employee who commented on the YouTube clip, people have been doing just that. “I frequently walk past this piano at C17,” they wrote. “I want to let you know that passengers and even flight crew members frequently play music on it now! Thank you for bringing a new life to the piano!”

I reached out to Jackson and asked a couple questions about his experience. First off, I wanted to know more about shipping all of his tools there in advance. What was his conversation like with the airport employee? "They were really confused at first," he said with a laugh. "My mom actually helped me out with setting the whole thing up, but we contacted probably 10 different people until we finally found the right person that could help us, but there were totally on board once we explained the situation. She helped me get the tools through TSA and all that."

The Piano Doctor also talked about all the media attention he's received after the airport video went viral. "The reaction has been crazy!" he said. "So far the story has 1.3 million views on YouTube, and I've had people constantly reaching out to ask if they could do an article or something similar. So far it's already been on The Boston Globe and The Washington Post! Now NBC is reaching out and wants to do something together. It's so hard to believe that so much is happening over just a 10-15 minute video, but I'm excited. It was my favorite video I've ever made!"

Jackson talked about his unconventional career path in an interview with West Michigan ABC station WZZM. “I thought I was going to be a performer,” he says. “That’s what I wanted to be. I finally had a couple opportunities in high school to play on a stage—enough to realize that’s not really what I want to do for the rest of my life. I wanted to find something around pianos that I could do, and that’s when I ran into piano tuning.”

Family

Baby still in diapers is blowing people away with his musical ability at the piano

Young Gavriil seems to intuitively understand music, and the best part is that he does it with such joy.

Gavriil Scherbenko appears to be a musical prodigy.

Mozart blew people away with his composing abilities at age 5. Franz Liszt played piano professionally for the aristocracy when he was 9. Yo-Yo Ma played cello for President John F. Kennedy at age 7.

Musical prodigies have fascinated people for centuries with their mastery of music at unexpected ages. Most of us have the same questions: How and at what age were their abilities discovered? Is it nature or nurture or a combination of both? Can prodigies be created on purpose, or is it something no one can predict or control?

While each musical prodigy has their own unique story, one family is giving the world some early glimpses of what an innate sense for music looks like in a baby who's still in diapers.

Plenty of 1 1/2-year-old's like to pound piano keys to see what they sound like, but Gavriil Sherbenko's piano play goes far beyond experimenting with sound. He and his chubby little fingers make actual chords and coordinate notes between his two hands.

At first, it might look like he's randomly playing keys, but it quickly becomes clear that he is purposeful in his playing.

Watch:

Watching more videos of Gavriil at the piano, we see that his musicality hasn't just appeared out of nowhere. Like most musical prodigies, he's living in a musical household. In some videos, he sits on his sister's lap watching her fingers intently as she plays and sings. In others, he sits on his mother's or father's lap as he experiments with the sounds of the piano, with or without them.

But sometimes he plays totally on his own, and it's clear that he's already got an astounding understanding of the relationships between notes and how to form chords, both from observing what his family is doing and from hands-on practice himself.

But again, even in very musical families, this kind of musicality at this young of an age is astounding.

The best part of the videos of Gavriil at the piano is how much joy and love there are in each one. This is not a Beethoven being boxed about the ears for making a mistake on the piano situation. Yes, his family members are teaching him to understand what he's doing on the piano, but he seems to be enjoying it and so do they. A sports-loving family would toss and kick a ball around with a toddler; this family makes music together.

A nurturing environment meeting an innate sensibility is what prodigious ability is made of. And when those elements are combined with genuine enjoyment, it's the best of all worlds—and a delight to witness.

Watch how Gavriil is able to play the solfege that his sister sings. It's absolutely incredible, not only that he knows the notes to play to go with her pitches, but that he has the manual dexterity and fine motor control to play like he does at his age.

Assuming he continues to enjoy playing it, it will be fun to see where all of this leads as he develops his gifts further. As one commenter said, "Get the tuxedo ready!"

Now three years old, Gavriil is still going strong and making truly incredible progress as a young prodigious musician. Watch his latest video:

We can't wait to see what's ahead for Gavriil! Keep up with him and his family on YouTube.


This article originally appeared two years ago.

Culture

Man's through-the-wall piano duet with a mystery neighbor became a beautiful love story

At first, it seemed like the perfect romantic meet-cute, but turned out to be something far more meaningful.

Photo by Bora Sözüer on Unsplash
person playing piano

Sometimes the right two people come along at the right time in each other's lives, and a story for the ages is born. But it's rare that we get to see such stories captured in real-time. This time we're lucky. In a silent saga befitting a Pixar short film—complete with soundtrack—a TikToker and his mystery neighbor have taken us all on a beautiful journey of music, love, longing, and loss.

Giorgio Lo Porto is an Italian living in London, and on February 6, he shared a video of his new neighbor playing piano. The music is muffled behind their shared wall, but clear enough to hear. Lo Porto wrote that he left a note for the mystery neighbor, telling them he loved their music and asking if they could play "My Heart Will Go On." And so they did.

Lo Porto left another note suggesting that they play something together, each in their own apartments. A call-and-response duet of sorts. He didn't know if they'd do it, or if they'd forget when the time came. He also said he himself hadn't played in months. But he started playing at 2pm, and as soon as he stopped, the neighbor began.

Their duets became a weekend "meet up," playing back and forth through their shared wall.

You can watch a compilation of the performance below but keep reading because there is so much more to this beautiful story:


Two neighbours playing piano between a wall - Giorgio and Emilwww.youtube.com



Seems like a perfect meet-cute in a romantic comedy, doesn't it?

On Valentine's Day, they played a duet and Lo Porto wrote "It's Valentine's Day. We're in lockdown. This was our way of saying, I don't know who you are but I'm here. You're not alone."

Then it came time for them to meet.

"Well, today I have met my neighbor," Lo Porto wrote in a video shared on February 21. "It was better than expected."

"His name is Emil..."

 
 @giorgio_lp_ I wasn't surprised - I knew there was a special soul behind that wall ##fyp ##foryou ##music ##neighbour ##love ##piano ##foryoupage
 ♬ original sound - Giorgio Lo Porto 
 
 

"He is 78 years old, originally from Poland. This is his temporary accommodation while he waits for his house to be sold."

"He lost his wife in December due to COVID," Lo Porto shared. "And all he has left is the piano. And the reason why he plays at 2pm every weekend is because his wife loved it."

"He thanked me for keeping him motivated and less lonely. And I promised that I'll play with him until he moves out."

"He is camera shy," he added. "But I'll try again when he's ready."

Lo Porto shared that Emil is "a special soul" and that "he is fine now, healing." And his piano playing is just gorgeous.

Playing with Emil inspired Lo Porto to write his own song. "I woke up with 3 notes in my head," he wrote on February 27.

He added some string orchestration to it and called it "Dear Emil." It's the first song he's ever written.

"When I wrote this piece I started picturing Emil's life," he wrote. "A 78 y.o. widower who lost his wife due to this stupid virus. Spending days at home alone due to lockdown. Looking forward to play her favourite piano songs at 2pm every weekend, until a note appeared on his door. A letter showing he was heard and not alone. And a new friendship started. Two pianos between a wall, not knowing who was playing. But it didn't matter."

"You can be the light of somebody else's darkness. So keep shining."

On February 26, Lo Porto announced that Emil was moving out the following week, and shared their last weekend duet—the much requested "Moonlight Sonata."

He said Emil still didn't want to be on camera, but said he was much happier and thanked everyone who had been watching their duets. Lo Porto promised he would keep playing for him on the weekends.

It would be lovely if the story ended there, but it doesn't. (May need a tissue now if you haven't already grabbed one.)

Lo Porto shared on March 14th that he'd received word that Emil had passed away in his sleep: "And now he is reunited with his wife."

"Dear Emil," he wrote. "I knew very little about you, but you changed my life. You gave me back my passion, and we shared that with the world. You'll be in my heart. I'll keep playing, thinking of how powerful music can be. You said I was your light, but you've been mine too. Bye, Emil."

If you needed a good cry today, hope that helped. And if you needed a reminder that humans can be wonderful and life can connect us in beautiful and mysterious ways, now you've got one.

Lo Porto says he will have a full version of "Dear Emil" up on YouTube soon. You can listen to it on Spotify as well.


This article originally appeared four years ago.

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