His fingers move quickly, light as a feather across the piano keys, his audience spellbound. If you were wearing a blindfold, you’d never guess that the talented maestro-in-the-making coaxing tunes from the Baby Grand was not quite 10 years old.
Andrew Willicott, from Melkbosstrand started playing the piano aged five on a keyboard at home when his father Gary YouTube’d the first few lines of “Oh When The Saints Go Marching In”.
“I played it with one finger, the way I knew from my childhood. Andrew watched me, studying my fingers, and within a couple of attempts had managed to play it through,” said Gary. The next day, Andrew walked up to the keyboard, turned it on, and played the song to perfection on his first attempt, from memory.
“In that moment I realised he may have a gift. I showed him another song and he played both from memory the following day,” Gary said.
Today, Andrew can read sheet music and his repertoire includes Nkosi Sikelel’iAfrika, Richard Clayderman’s Ballade pour Adeline as well as gospel music. Shoppers at Cape Town’s Table Bay Mall might have seen Andrew sitting at the piano in one of the forecourts, the mask covering his small face not hiding the concentration evident as he coaxes the tunes from his instrument. He also had an opportunity to play earlier this year at a Rocco de Villiers concert.
“Every parent believes their child to be gifted and we wondered if we were just being biased, but our suspicions were confirmed when we took him to a piano teacher, and after a couple of lessons he had progressed much faster than the average student,” said mom Helena.
Andrew’ dyslexia has made it harder for him to learn to read music and hold the required attention span, but his parents believe that it is in fact a large part of the reason for his gift. As a two-year-old, he lined his cars up according to their colours, and Gary believes this affinity for patterns has made it easy for his son to see and repeat them. “This is why he can now play his repertoire from memory.”
Gary said Andrew had an extraordinary enthusiasm and love for music and learning. “He is highly creative, consistently generates new ideas and is starting to improvise and compose his own music. Musical patterns are quickly spotted and memorised and he loves to explore new harmonic progressions. To top it all, his heart is in the right place and he is confident yet humble.”
“I want to bring healing to people through my music,” said Andrew, who practices for at least an hour each day.
Indeed, his parents report that on several occasions, spectators at the mall have become overwhelmed with emotion while listening to the youngster play.
“I dream about doing a world tour by the age of 12. I play for the love of it, and to share this love with others,” Andrew said.
