Mozart blew people away with his composing abilities at age 5. Franz Liszt played piano professionally for the aristocracy when he was 9. Yo-Yo Ma played cello for President John F. Kennedy at age 7.
Musical prodigies have fascinated people for centuries with their mastery of music at unexpected ages. Most of us have the same questions: How and at what age were their abilities discovered? Is it nature or nurture or a combination of both? Can prodigies be created on purpose, or is it something no one can predict or control?
While each musical prodigy has their own unique story, one family is giving the world some early glimpses of what an innate sense for music looks like in a baby who’s still in diapers.
Plenty of 1 1/2-year-old’s like to pound piano keys to see what they sound like, but Gavrill Sherbenko’s piano play goes far beyond experimenting with sound. He and his chubby little fingers make actual chords and coordinate notes between his two hands.
At first, it might look like he’s randomly playing keys, but it quickly becomes clear that he is purposeful in his playing.
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Watching more videos of Gavrill at the piano, we see that his musicality hasn’t just appeared out of nowhere. Like most musical prodigies, he’s living in a musical household. In some videos, he sits on his sister’s lap watching her fingers intently as she plays and sings. In others, he sits on his mother’s or father’s lap as he experiments with the sounds of the piano, with or without them.
But sometimes he plays totally on his own, and it’s clear that he’s already got an astounding understanding of the relationships between notes and how to form chords, both from observing what his family is doing and from hands-on practice himself.
But again, even in very musical families, this kind of musicality at this young of an age is astounding.
The best part of the videos of Gavrill at the piano is how much joy and love there are in each one. This is not a Beethoven being boxed about the ears for making a mistake on the piano situation. Yes, his family members are teaching him to understand what he’s doing on the piano, but he seems to be enjoying it and so do they. A sports-loving family would toss and kick a ball around with a toddler; this family makes music together.
A nurturing environment meeting an innate sensibility is what prodigious ability is made of. And when those elements are combined with genuine enjoyment, it’s the best of all worlds—and a delight to witness.
Watch how Gavrill is able to play the solfege that his sister sings. It’s absolutely incredible, not only that he knows the notes to play to go with her pitches, but that he has the manual dexterity and fine motor control to play like he does at his age.
Assuming he continues to enjoy playing it, it will be fun to see where all of this leads as he develops his gifts further. As one commenter said, “Get the tuxedo ready!”
You can follow Gavrill’s progress on YouTube.
This article originally appeared on 12.5.23