Kit Armstrong is 20 years old and has performed with several orchestras and chamber groups.
He is also a composer and at ten years had written more than fifteen works. Many of them and subsequent compositions have been premiered by several European ensembles. Born in America of British and Taiwanese parents, he has studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Imperial College in London. He has also studied science, his studies including pure mathematics at the Pierre and Marie Curie University.
Such accomplishment in such a small frame at so young an age is almost alarming, but at the Colston Hall his playing of Schumann’s Piano Concerto was sensitive, secure and utterly brilliant. We went as wild with enthusiasm as a polite Bristol audience can be.
An important part of his life and development has been his relationship to Alfred Brendel, his mentor and friend. I have bought a DVD ‘Set the Piano Stool on Fire’, which tells the story of how the young prodigy and the old master have made music together – as the blurb says ‘a fascinating portrait of the creative process’. It’s a process which is surely going to become a long-time feature of the international concert scene.
His mother says that at the age of only two he played “Jingle Bells” on a toy piano after hearing her sing it. He began to read music in Braille when he was seven years old, but learning music in Braille is laborious. Now he practices from a recording of a volunteer reading aloud every musical note in a piece. He too is a composer.
I am a huge fan of Mr. Nobuyuki Tsujii, and had the privilege to be at the Ashkenzay-Tsujii-Philharmonia performance at the Colston Hall on May 29.
It was heartening to witness the warm reception received by "Nobu" in Bristol.
Please allow me to point out that Nobu is 23, not 24, years old – he was born on September 13, 1988. His well deserved success is a remarkable story of sheer brilliance cultivated by unconditional love and support, and very hard work on his part. I invite you to read more about him on a web site that I created for his international fans: https://sites.google.com/site/nobufans/
Greetings and many thanks and for sharing your enthusiasm- and for your correction – my arithmatic is not very good!I have seen your web site and found it useful when writing my blog.Good wishes.
B.R.
That's so inspiring! I'm going to have to check Nobuyuki Tsujii out.