When passengers in the Manchester airport sat down for a quick coffee before catching their flights recently, they never expected to be serenaded by a literal child prodigy, but that’s exactly what happened. An 11-year-old piano player named Harrison spotted a grand piano placed outside of Broderick’s Coffee Shop in Terminal 2 and couldn’t resist plopping down on the bench to knock out a tune.
At first, no one thought much of it.
They noticed the young boy getting situated at the piano, but largely paid him no attention. That is until he started playing.
As soon as Harrison’s little fingers touched the keys, heads everywhere began to turn in his direction.
For a kid of his age, one might expect a lovely “Hot Cross Buns”, or even a slightly more advanced “Für Elise”, however, Harrison had something else in store for the crowds.
The song he chose to play was none other than “Nuvole Bianche” by famous Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi. It is a far cry from the simple beginner piano songs that most 11-year-olds are dabbling in. Einaudi is one of the most well-known classical composers alive today, trained at the Conservatorio Verdi in Milan.
Yet, Harrison’s heartfelt cover of the Einaudi track was just as good as any we’ve ever heard.
It takes most people a lifetime of dedication to reach that level of talent. However, Harrison is a natural. He didn’t even have the sheet music books open in front of him during the performance. It was all done through memory as well as plain old musical intuition.
Everyone at the coffee shop instantly took notice and no one could believe what they were seeing.
Throughout the song, many people glanced over multiple times as if to second-guess themselves, and a few young boys of a similar age stood up with their arms crossed in disbelief.
The one word that comes to mind is wow!
As Harrison finished, the surprised crowd burst into massive applause.
It’s not often that an 11-year-old puts on such a high-quality performance in the middle of an airport. However, the YouTube video of the act proves that it definitely happened. Harrison has his own channel where he shares all of his fun performances, and this one, in particular, has received almost eight million views!
There is no doubt that the young talent has quite the career ahead of him in the world of music.
With the amount of attention he is already getting at the age of 11, we can only imagine how much of a difference a few more years of practice will make. We wouldn’t even be surprised if he starts composing his own pieces sometime soon.
Harrison is among the best of the best young pianists on the scene currently and we are so excited to see what the future brings for him. At first glance, he looks just like any other kid his age, but give him a piano and a bench to sit on and the result is magical. His parents must be so proud!
Watch the full video of 11-year-old Harrison’s surprise airport piano performance below.
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