Five-year-old Cheryl flawlessly plays Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” on the piano. Think of an average five-year-old, and then think of an average five-year-old playing the piano. Usually, they aren’t really playing, rather randomly plunking keys to create a madcap melody of enthusiastic noise. A few who have had lessons may bang out a mean rendition of “Polly Wolly Doodle,” but we don’t expect much more than that.
Then there’s little Cheryl. She’s five, but if you just heard her play and didn’t see her, you would think she was an adult professional concert pianist. Only the video of her flawlessly moving through Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” proves it really isn’t a much older person at the keys.She doesn’t play a watered-down version of the classic piece, either. It is the full metal jacket Beethoven, complete with the intricate fingerings and challenging tempos throughout.
She sits gracefully on the piano bench, her little yellow and white dress neatly pressed and her shining black hair carefully braided into pigtails. Although we can’t see it, it is easy to imagine her legs dangling from the bench, far from the floor.
Her hands don’t seem large enough to be able to navigate the keys, and yet she does. Her fingers don’t look strong enough to pound the keys when she needs to, and yet they do. Indeed, her hands glide over the piano with the apparent effortlessness of a prodigy.
Sometimes she barely touches the ivories, coaxing out delicate notes. Other times she carefully moves back and forth between white and black, stretching her little fingers to leap the space needed to hit the next note on tempo.
Despite the intensity of the performance, Cheryl peeks at the camera once in a while, as if looking for approval from her audience. She definitely deserves it!
Her concentration throughout the piece rivals the most experienced performers. She has obviously memorized much of it, only glancing at the music for some of the most complex movements. Even then, it seems as if she only wants to confirm what she already knows comes next since her fingers never hesitate.
If you want to see a little girl who appears well on her way to musical stardom, check out the video below.