Mateo González Tamariz is just 12 years old but already well on his way to a successful career as a pianist, with pieces by Beethoven and Debussy in his enviable repertoire.
The Veracruz native performed a concert at the National Palace in Mexico City Saturday, playing his favorite sonata by the former composer and Children’s Corner by the latter.
“Mateo has a talent that covers everything needed to be a great musician,” Luisa González Parda, the youngster’s teacher and an acclaimed pianist herself, told the newspaper Milenio.
“We’re talking about a virtuosity in terms of energy, strength and speed [combined] with sweetness, communication and art,” she added.
Mateo, one of the standout students of the “Las Notas de Guido” music program and the Veracruz State Institute of Music, told Milenio that when he is on stage he tries to block everything out and focus solely on the music.
“Sometimes I don’t hear the audience, I put myself inside the music and in my mind, I start to think of stories that relate to what I’m playing. And suddenly everyone claps and it’s comforting. In the last pieces, it feels like the piano belongs to you,” he said.
Mateo has been honing his musical talent for almost half of his short life.
His mother, Elisa Tamariz Domínguez, explained that at the age of seven Mateo started playing around on the same piano that she had played as a child.
It wasn’t long before he was making up his own ditties, she said, adding “in six months he advanced as much as I did in five years.”
Now, Mateo describes music as a “way of life” and his passion for his instrument is obvious for all to see and hear.
“The sound of the piano is very beautiful, it’s spectacular. You can make sounds [ranging from] the very faint to the very loud,” he said.
The prodigy has been rewarded for his dedication and passion by receiving first and second places in two national music contests while he has also performed at the Universidad Veracruzana, the Museum of Anthropology in Xalapa and the International Piano Festival at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) in Mexico City.
Despite his growing experience, Mateo admits that he still gets nervous before he plays and also said he is worried about whether he will become as successful as he hopes to in the future.
But judging by his performance at Saturday’s recital as part of the National Institute of Fine Arts’ “Young people in music” program, his teacher’s acclaim and his love for his instrument, a glittering career probably awaits.
Source: Milenio (sp)
