Talented 11-year-old prodigy is one of youngest people in the WORLD to earn music diploma
MANY people remember hammering out scale and arpeggios on the piano as children – but one 11-year-old is already one of the youngest people in WORLD to be awarded a DIPLOMA in music.
James Chen, from Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, is already proficient in some of the most complex pieces of music ever composed.
His repertoire includes Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart and – most impressively – Rachmaninoff.
James began learning the piano aged six and practiced for just five minutes a day.
But he soon got the bug and just two years later passed his Grade Six exam with flying colours.
James was awarded his diploma – which he passed with distinction – just short of his eleventh birthday.
The talented youngster began boarding at the prestigious Chetham's School of Music in Manchester in September, but before that was a normal schoolboy.
He said: "I have been playing the piano for four years.
If you can't talk you can always express yourself in music
"In these four years I have been practising a lot. I have been doing some concerts and competitions and getting lots of trophies.
"I really like music. If you can't talk you can always express yourself in music.
"If you feel happy you can always play a lively piece but if you are a bit more down or sad you can play a more melancholy piece.
"It expresses the feeling of the composer when they wrote it."
James' astonishing skills were captured on camera as he was practicing for a concert at Middlesbrough Town Hall last weekend.
His little brother Jeremy, 9, is also showing promising pianistic skills.
Their proud mother Xiaoyu, 41, said: "There is no other musical talent in the family, so I am not sure where the boys get it from.
"When James first started playing he would practise for just five minutes a day, then ten, and we gradually built it up.
James Chen 11 - playing piano- Middlesborough Town Hall
"While studying for his diploma he practised for around an hour a day. It doesn't sound like much, but it is the quality of the practise that counts, not the length of time.
"People may call James a genius, but he is not a genius to me, he is just my baby.
"Jeremy and James are just normal kids, they fight with each other and go out on their bikes like any other children their age."
The gruelling exam involves a 35-minute recital, as well as Grade 6-level sight reading test with virtually no preparation.
Barbara White coached James through his diploma. She said: "When James came to me he was working towards Grade 6 after learning the piano for just two years.
"He has never found anything technically hard and his musical maturity is way beyond his age."
