She may only be 9 years of age, but Emma Servadio has been learning to play the piano since five years old. Since then, she has already composed three piano pieces of her own. Now, she has been asked to play “Shimmer”, one of her original compositions, at Carnegie Hall in New York to show off her musical skills. The three-minute piece that she just completed over summer will be the one she plays in the Weill Recital Hall as part of the Crescendo International Music Competition.
Believe it or not, the fourth-grader at Christa McAuliffe School has never had a composition lesson. She is just one of the rare talents who is capable of sitting in front of a piano and create music. Even her own mother, Ching-Yao Chen, had never thought that her daughter would follow in this sort of path. However, her mother did realise that Emma always had a thing or two for music. When she was merely 2 months old, she would move her hands towards music that was played for her, as if ready to conduct it. Upon realising this, her mother decided to sign her up for violin lessons when she was only 4 and a half years old and then piano lessons when she was 5.
This was when it started to help. Initially, Emma composed two short, original pieces on the violin. When she was six, she began composing her own piano pieces. “It just comes to her. For her, it’s the way it is,” explained her mother, who had learnt to play the piano as a child but didn’t play again until about a decade ago. Since her first piece, she has gone on to compose two more and is still in the midst of composing a few others. At the moment, Emma is still taking lessons for both piano and violin. However, she is solely focus on composing pieces on the piano.
“There’s a particular intensity she brings to her music,” stated Kathryn Southworth, who taught her piano at the Community Music School for about three years. Emma added that she would like to become a professional musician when she grows up. For the full story, you can read it from here.
At Awesome Piano, we provide piano lessons in Singapore for students of all ages and levels. We have dedicated and qualified teachers to assist you in your learning and to widen your knowledge. For more details on our lessons, kindly refer to our website.