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Prodigy storms the Proms
Aline Nassif01.09.08
He is barely tall enough for his feet to reach the pedals of his piano, but nine-year-old Marc Yu earned a rapturous reception with a storming performance at the Proms.
The wunderkind - nicknamed the "little Mozart" - roared through Schubert's Fantasia in F minor in a duet alongside the Chinese pianist Lang Lang, who performed at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing last month.
As one of the youngest musicians ever to appear at the Royal Albert Hall throughout the Proms' 114-year history, Marc was only too aware of the significance of the occasion.
Speaking after the concert, he said: "I got to play at this wonderful, beautiful, gorgeous hall and it was very overwhelming.
"I think it went well, I'm pleased with my performance. I wasn't nervous when I went up on the stage but it was intense and fun. There's nothing more exciting than feeling yourself, the piano and the other artists like Lang Lang. I've performed this piece twice before with him and he's fantastic - he's always been my idol."
The Macau-born performer lives in Los Angeles, where he is taught at home, and flies to China and Detroit to study the piano with his teacher Professor Minduo Li, based at Shanghai Conservatory.
He started the piano at the age of two and first performed to an audience a year later. Aged six, he played cello and piano solos with the backing of symphony orchestras.
Marc's precocious talent has earned him comparisons to Mozart, who gave his first performance at the age of six, and Marc is flattered by the comparison. He said: "I definitely take it as a compliment but I think maybe it's a little bit silly, because Mozart was a great composer.
"He made up melodies and he was a good pianist but not a grand virtuoso player like Liszt, and like I want to be."
But making music is not all that Marc, an only child, wants to achieve in life. He is also passionate about spreading the word about classical music.
He said: "I want to bring classical music to people and to children. I want to see parents introducing it to their sons and daughters, libraries put out musical programmes and schools make it a part of the syllabus.
"I saw a lot of young faces in the crowd at the Proms and that made me very happy. It's not like the concerts I've played in the States where the average age in the audience is 50 or 60."
This is Marc's first visit to London, and he says he is looking forward to exploring the sights. It will make a change from his eight-hours a day practice schedule.
His mother Chloe said: "I'm still too overwhelmed by the experience of seeing him perform to talk. A few years ago he saw a DVD of [Evgeny] Kissin playing at the Proms and he said 'I'd like to do that'.
