New York’s famous Carnegie Hall has seen musical giants like Tchaikovsky, George Gershwin, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Judy Garland and The Beatles wow audiences.
Now pianist Edison Li from Prebbleton has joined that illustrious list.
The 10-year-old is spending two weeks in the United States holidaying with family after performing at Carnegie Hall.
Edison, 10, was third in the young musicians category at the American Protege International Piano and Strings Competition in November, which led to an invite to play at Carnegie Hall.
The piano and strings competition was a global event where contestants submitted YouTube auditions.
The Prebbleton School pupil played Chopin’s Mazurka in A minor for an audience of hundreds at Carnegie Hall.
His mother, Mandy, said she was more nervous than Edison was, but watching him perform was “completely mindblowing!”
“It was amazing, just absolutely incredible.”
Edison was performer No 11 on the day, and while his family waited to be seated in the audience, he was practising backstage for the show.
Mazurka in A minor is a grade 7 piano piece, the equivalent NCEA level 3 music. Edison has been practising for months. Mandy said she had heard the piece “1000 times!”
But there was something “so special” about hearing it in the echoing theatre that is Carnegie Hall, Mandy said.
“The hall is just magnificent.”
Edison is a keen athlete and talented drummer, but says when he plays piano “I can express myself”.
The family met Mandy’s cousins in New York and booked a hotel five minutes away from Carnegie Hall, which proved to be a good choice because they had to retrieve his bow tie after it was left behind.
When he returns, Edison wants to play in a Christchurch orchestra.
He has already been accepted to Chamber Music New Zealand.
