Piano Prodigy of Hangzhou Wins Top Awards in Italy

At the Young Pianist Competition of the 20th Barletta International Young Musicians held in Italy， the ten-year-old Chinese girl Yu Ziyi came out the top winner in Category A for children about 10 years old on April 30， 2010. She also won the first prize for Four Hands Piano in Category A with a girl named Huang Qiying from Shenzhen. With “Liuyang River”， a melody adapted from a song popular for decades in China， she was declared the only winner of Asian Outstanding Musician Award.

Before winning the top awards in Barletta， the precocious and sensible girl from Hangzhou had already won a string of top accolades at various piano competitions at home and abroad.

Yu Ziyi is very lucky to have been born into a family of music in Hangzhou. She began to take music lessons even before she came into the world.

Now associate professors of music in two different colleges in Hangzhou， Yu Ziyi’s parents were convinced that a successful musician must start to learn music as early as possible. The pregnant mother sang passionately to the baby inside her every day. One day， a worried collage colleague living upstairs knocked at the door and urged the eager vocalist in her eighth month of pregnancy to stop practicing arduously so that the baby could be safely born.

Not at all was the baby stunted by her mother’s singing. Instead， she was born with the musical talents of her parents. When she was old enough to go to a preschool， teachers there were amazed to find that the toddler was able to sing and dance unusually well.

With a sensitive ear for musical sounds and amazing memory for melodies， she began to take piano lessons as soon as humanly possible. This is partly because her parents thought piano playing was more suitable for their baby girl than singing and partly because they believed the girl should take music lessons as early as possible. She could have trained to be a singer like her parents. Even now， some professionals still believe the young pianist can have a bright future as a singer. After she came back from Italy with the piano honors， a record company from Taiwan had Yu Ziyi’s singing recorded and observed her voice was beautiful.

The girl has dedication. As a preschooler with no need to spend time on academic studies， she was able to spend a lot of time practicing on piano. Adults sometimes wonder how a little girl had such passion and dedication to piano playing. In an interview with a journalist from the children’s channel from Zhejiang Television years later， she was asked whether she really liked piano， a question often asked intentionally to find out whether a child takes music lessons willingly or under the gun of the parents. She pondered the question for a while， grinned， and replied she was not sure but she guessed her heart really went into piano playing.

Since she began to take piano lessons， her mother has been sitting with her through every practice session day in day out for all these years. Like the mother， the daughter is a perfectionist willing to go the extra mile. She had difficulty mastering some extremely challenging finger techniques when she reached a make-or-break period of piano playing at five and six. The mother and the daughter were equally frustrated about a specific technique one evening， for the girl was not able to do it right and did not sleep well that night. The next morning， the little player figured it out on the piano when she was alone at home. Her mother was hugely surprised and delighted to find her daughter had managed to get the tricky finger movement right by herself.

When she began her primary school studies， her parents sent her to study under the guidance of Tang Beihua in Shanghai， an experienced piano professor with Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Tang had been a prominent piano teacher in USA for twelve years. She has served as a juror at many international piano competitions. Her students have won prizes at numerous international competitions.

Yu Ziyi began to take piano lessons from the professor in Shanghai once a week. Shuttling between Shanghai and Hangzhou was tough to the whole family. But Yu Ziyi took it gladly. In the second semester of her third year at the primary school， she began to prepare for entrance examinations in order to get enrolled into the primary school affiliated to Shanghai Conservatory of Music. As preparations intensified， she needed to stay in Shanghai. Her parents took turns at coming to Shanghai to look after her. Her father stayed with her in Shanghai on Monday and Tuesday and then her mother came for the three other weekdays. This way， they were able to teach at the college and find time to look after their daughter. Now the daughter studies at the school in Shanghai. The parents will adhere to this arrangement until Yu Ziyi is old enough to take care of herself.

Piano is by no means everything in the young girl’s life. The precocious pianist reads extensively. In addition to the must-read books named by her teachers， science fiction and fantasy are her favorite， for she enjoys a sense of otherworldliness in these stories. She believes ghosts do exist in this world but she is not afraid of them because they are invisible. “The Happy Lambs and the Big Big Wolf” is her favorite television cartoon program. On one occasion， Yu Ziyi and her parents took part in an innovative piano contest. When they learned they had won the top position， the overjoyed little girl shouted “Yes!” Everyone present was touched by the girl’s contagious ecstasy.

Submerged in the beauty of her piano world， the little girl is not particularly envious of the children playing wildly outside her window. This is partly because she is a quiet girl. And partly because she likes to read quietly and do some sketches at home. Professor Tang says that the little girl at school sometimes initiates a discussion on music with graduate students. Yu explains that learning from much older people helps her make faster progress.

Thinking the little girl’s dedication all these years and reviewing Yu Ziyi’s gold-medal performances before and in Baratta， one would probably believe that it was only natural that she won.

In the final， Yu Ziyi played Liuyang River and a serenade by Strauss. Though she made one or two negligibly minor mistakes， the five jurors gave her full scores for her performance of Liuyang River. She recalled her gold-medal performance this way: “Once on the stage， I felt free like a bird. I did better than usual. My mother was beside herself with joy when she saw the scores.”

Professor Tang commented that Yu Ziyi had a good state of mind for the competition. She was able to concentrate and allow nothing to distract her.

Moreover， the musical piece itself appealed to the jurors very much. The President of the Jury was so impressed and moved by Ziyi’s performance that he came to Ziyi after the competition， congratulating her on her gold-medal performance and asking her about the name of the song she had just played and wanting to get its music score. The little girl replied in English: “This is Liuyang River.” The chairman said that he had never heard of the melody and commented that it was as beautiful as Jasmine Flower.□