Only 10 and a piano maestro

He is only 10, but home-grown classical pianist Mikkel Myer Lee has already sold out a solo concert at the Esplanade Recital Studio and performed in Austria and the Netherlands.

At the Victoria Concert Hall next Wednesday, he will headline his biggest show to date, accompanied by a 41-member orchestra from Musicians' Initiative.

He is set to play his interpretation of Beethoven Concerto No. 3 and Chopin Concerto No. 2.

Headlining a major concert did not seem to faze Mikkel, as The Straits Times finds out in a recent Zoom interview with him and his mother Felina Seah.

"I feel very happy," the boy, whose birthday was last month, replies matter-of-factly when asked about the concert.

The only child is homeschooled and takes piano lessons from Belgian-American pianist Tedd Joselson, 68. Mikkel spends four to eight hours on the piano daily and has also started composing his own piano pieces.

"I feel excited when playing the piano, especially when I am learning a new piece. I also feel very happy when I am playing pieces I composed," he adds.

Ms Seah, 40, is a part-time business and economics teacher, while her husband, 42, is a real estate agent. Neither plays music.

When their son was around six months old, the couple signed him up for music appreciation classes for babies. Mikkel also had a toy piano that he often tinkered with.

When he was four, he started taking piano lessons at a local music school.

But his parents soon pulled him out because the teacher often punished him, claiming he could not follow instructions.

The teacher insisted that Mikkel practise single notes, but he would play several notes instead.

Ms Seah recalls: "We didn't want this to continue because we felt he really loves music. And we didn't want him to feel like he's not supposed to be curious."

Mikkel, she adds, was traumatised by the experience and did not take any more lessons until he was 61/2 years old.

Because of an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease at his childcare centre, his parents kept him at home for a few months, during which his father bought a secondhand piano for $400.

He came up with a game in which Mikkel covered his eyes while his father pressed several notes on the keyboard simultaneously.

He would then ask Mikkel to replicate the same notes, and the boy got them right every time.

His parents then bought classical CDs and regularly played them at home. To their delight, Mikkel figured out on his own how to play some of the pieces.

Mindful of the boy's past experience with his old piano teacher, his parents looked for one who could nurture his love for the piano without insisting on grading and exams.

Ms Seah says: "The teacher would play for him when she came to our house. He would listen or look at her and remember how to play the pieces by ear."

Based on his teacher's recommendation, Mikkel was invited to take part in several global piano competitions.

In July 2019, he won the first prize at two editions of the Grand Virtuoso International Piano Competition in Salzburg, Austria, and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. These European gigs were his first public performances.

An invitation to perform at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York in April 2020 was cancelled after the outbreak of Covid-19.

When schools were closed during the early days of the pandemic, Mikkel's parents pulled him out of primary school to homeschool him.

Ms Seah says: "I feel it would be better for him to have more flexibility when it comes to his education and piano lessons. We wanted him to concentrate on doing something he loves."

He spent most of last year taking formal lessons with Joselson and learnt to read music.

In February this year, he played two complex pieces - Chopin 24 Preludes Op. 28 and Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 6 In F Major, Op. 10, No. 2 - to a 100-strong audience at a sold-out, socially distanced concert at the Esplanade. The show was organised by his parents.

Ms Seah recalls that her son was in high spirits that night. "During the interval, he could not wait to go out on stage to play again. When the concert ended, he asked us when he could have another one."

Joselson felt strongly that Mikkel needed to experience performing with an orchestra for the show at Victoria Concert Hall.

Mikkel has two hobbies - painting and making music instruments from upcycled boxes.

His dream is to be a full-time musician and composer when he grows up, and his parents are already making plans to turn that into a reality.

Ms Seah says: "After his PSLE, we are looking to enrol him in a music conservatory in Europe or the United States - somewhere with a better environment to nurture his talent and interests."