Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical Elias on Ellen - Six Year Old Piano Prodigy

Kathy showed me this earlier today.
I had to share it. Very cute, and very talented.

I think Elias is what Franz Liszt would have been like had he been born in 2008.

"Elias is a 7-year-old piano prodigy, but what he brought when he met Ellen was a lot more than just musical skill. This might be one of the most memorable guests in history."

LIBERACE reborn!

How much nurture - how much nature?

He is clearly unique as far as child prodigies go. I truly hope that his musical side gets more nurturing and guidance. He's got the showmanship down.

Maybe this should be in the Classical section so that we'll get some real inputs on this little guy ? In another forum few Classical Piano teachers were certainly not impressed.

He is taught by his self-taught mother apparently !! The playing at Carnegie Hall line is interesting and misleading since it is based on a video submission based contest where the top submissions result in a performance at a Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Wow! Well, I'm a teacher and am impressed! Doubt it's true, but if he really was taught by a self-taught mom even more so a great talent! Funny too. Love it!

The Tampa Bay Times reported the mother as a self-taught pianist.

"Elias had won the trip to the prestigious venue by submitting a video to the American Protégé International Music Talent Competition. He came in second place and was off to New York.
In a story in November, the Times wrote about Elias and his twin brother, Zion. Their mom, Bree Phoenix, started giving Elias and Zion, piano lessons when the boys were about 3. As a child and teen, Phoenix had received lessons on the French horn. But she taught herself to play the piano.
"

Of course, Elias is much better than average for his age. But Solfegietto is a pretty elementary piece that I guess is often played by those with a couple of years experience`And the performance was not particularly good both technically and musically.

I think Elias' main appeal is his personality and this is one of the main reasons he was invited to play on Ellen.

I agree the playing may not have been all that exceptional.
It was the combination of the playing and the personality that won me over.

Well then how about we call him a personality prodigy, instead of a piano prodigy ?

(To me the playing was too fast, sloppy and in poor taste. Well, it's TV, right?)

Are the judgments of the pianistic skills so subjective that some teachers can be impressed while others certainly are not impressed by the same video ?

I'm sorry but it is precisely kids like this that I terribly and absolutely dislike.

All this "being myself, different and cool", being incapable of simply let his tongue rest for a second, constantly making funny faces, funny clothing, even the extra long hair... "being me". All this tells me that nobody in his whole life has spent a bit of time teaching him manners and how to interact socially, and every single adult he met have told him how cute and lovey he is, so he will be more and more tiring and attention seeker every day.

People will soon start seeing the monster they have created, but it will be too late for him. He feels that he needs to constantly bring drama to "be himself" and lots of people dislike that. I'm not the only one but I might be one of the few saying it loudly about a little kid.

Nothing against real personality, but really I got completely fed up of him within the first 15 seconds, I barely managed to wait till he started playing.

If he reminds any of you of your little genius kids or grandkids, sorry... but it's good to hear what some people really thinks. I hope his parents will realise that one can be him/herself without theatre and noise.

This is assuming that he hasn't got any mental issue, of course. Or he might have been high... who knows.

As per his piano skills, I can hear mistakes and have certainly seen even younger kids play better, but am not one to criticise him musically, he plays much much better than I do and possibly ever will!

Armchair observation from here - and I'm completely unqualified other than to just give my impression . . . but some of his behavior seemed almost compulsive, so I think there may be some issues.

It doesn't change the fact that for some of us a tiny bit of that behavior goes a LONG way. But if there are issues, at least they're being channeled in a constructive way or given an acceptable and perhaps even creative outlet. (And again, that doesn't mean that he's still not irritating!)

Happy not to be the only "bad mean one" here

He's annoying as he**, but even more annoying is TV giving airtime to _that_ , when there are plenty of much more interesting piano players out there.

sigh

Wow. Well I can't figure out if some of you are just intolerant of differences in others, or jealous of this child's accomplishments, or maybe a combination of both. The fact that this is a very young child seems to be lost on some of you. This obviously intelligent, happy, funny child made me smile from ear to ear, and KUDOS to him for being himself, in spite of judgmental bigots and hateful bullies that exist in the world. Of course the child was excited meeting his idol and being on the show, and if that much joy and enthusiasm bothers you that much it speaks much more to your own issues than it does to this innocent child. Ellen clearly loves this child as she had him back on the show last week where he received another standing ovation, and he has brought laughter and smiles to many around the Country. He's not rude or mean, he volunteers at nursing homes, and has lofty dreams such as playing at Carnegie Hall - that he worked for and has already accomplished. The world is full of truly bad things, .... this loving child dares be himself, hug, and dream (and accomplish) admirable goals and he's referred to as a "monster"? What??? To those of you tearing him down - what International competitions did you win at his age, what huge TV shows have wanted to book you, and when did you play Carnegie Hall? Right. I thought so.

As for his playing of Solfeggietto, he started very fast and the song got a little away from him. It happens. Especially when you're as young and had as much nervous energy as he did because of the show. Add to that he probably only had one chance to perform it and there may have been time constraints. It didn't take away from the impressiveness of this child's playing to me. He definitely has rare talent, but to compare him to an adult pianist with years of experience is ridiculous as this is a very young child. Ellen had him back on the show last Thursday where he talked about his dream of going to Harvard University, and again I found him utterly charming, and I was very impressed with his playing and musicality. He was not quite as excited this time, and his God given talent is evident. Both voices in the Bach piece were clear, and he played it beautifully. Kids like this are our future - we should rally behind and support them, not tear them down and promote a bully mentality, especially toward such a young child. Shame on some of you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE26QeDOnKc

Yes Kawaigal, I'm terribly envious of his talent and playing, I did say that he'll play much better than I'll ever do. Of course I would love to play like that, even with all the technical criticism that other people less ignorant than me can bring up to his playing.

But sorry, I have seen kids -and adults, who guess what, they started as kids- who need to be the centre of the world, every single second, and I simply don't like it. Hateful bully, me? No, when I don't like a person I simply avoid contact, I don't find pleasure making other people's lives difficult. But this was a public appearance, and therefore subject to personal opinions and taste. Ours are different.

I can only say that I'm very happy that normally now I have the chance to turn off the telly or not having to spend too long time with these kind of people, I have spent my fare share with some great examples of them, I can appreciate their art, but still dislike them as people. I like noisy annoying drama when I pay to watch it and then I can disconnect from it.

For what you say it seems that somebody told him to calm down a bit, which means somebody is actually showing him how to deal with other people in other than his "ME" way. This will help him in life much more than people constantly telling him how cute, intelligent and gorgeous he is and how perfect his way is.

Nobody is FORCED to like everybody, even kids. I am happy that you clearly love this kid (if that's possible from a couple times on the telly) and have the chance to watch him. I even hope that you get to meet him and spend A LOT of time with him to fully enjoy his colourful personality.

But personally I'm happy that I will never have to, I would be lying if I said otherwise.

He is much better than most his age, but still nothing special compared to thousands of children who started at an early age. No one's comparing him to an adult. His performance of Solfegietto was quite weak both technically and musically. This piece is often played by those with a few years of lessons.

If you want to see what rare talent looks like watch youtube videos of famous pianists when they were very young.