Young Henderson talent perseveres with help from the piano

By Aida Ahmed

Saturday, Sept. 3, 2011 | 6:22 p.m.

For a young pianist and composer, Victoria Young is performing at a level well above her peers.

The 11-year-old from Henderson practices three to five hours a day after class at Bob Miller Middle School. She plays pieces by Bach and Chopin with ease. She even played at Carnegie Hall last year, winning a top honor in a Tureck Bach Competition.

And she’s just getting started. As a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist, a title awarded to the best young classical musicians in the county, Young has dreams of one day going to The Juilliard School.

“When I play, I like to think of my piece as like a story,” said Young. “It’s kind of like playing a game by telling that story."

Young first played piano at the age of 5 while on a trip to her mother’s native Malaysia. Her mother, Beelee Young, said she knew from the start that her daughter had an ear for music.

“When she was 3 years old she had a perfect pitch. She knew all the notes,” she said.

But the road to musical perfection hasn’t come without its obstacles.

Victoria’s parents split up when she was 6. As a result, Victoria and her mother moved to a shelter and her mother couldn't afford expensive piano lessons.

With no piano and no instructor, the star student and musical prodigy could have easily given up, but she didn’t.

“I just tried not to think about it that much,” Victoria said.

That’s when piano instructor Damaris Alvarez stepped in. She saw Victoria’s talent and couldn’t stand to see it go to waste.

“(Alvarez) opened her house to us every day,” said Beelee Young, who went with her daughter to practice daily in Alvarez’s home.

The adults in Victoria’s life credit her hard work, love for music and positive attitude for her success.

“When (Victoria) finds herself in tough situations, she tries to look at it positively and not think about the negative,” Alvarez said.

Victoria is in the top 1 percent of her peers and has the talent and the potential to be a great pianist, she said.

“I can see her face sparkling when she is learning new stuff,” Alvarez said. “The piano becomes an open book and she can understand how to do the difficult passages. She’s not the average student — she has desire and discipline.”

Moving forward, Victoria is focused on getting good grades and improving at composing and performing. The Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist award comes with a $10,000 scholarship for music material and competition expenses.

“I want to be a pianist and play for the world,” Victoria said. “I really have a passion for it and want to stick with it.”