Bhubaneswar: An 11-year-old Odia boy won the first prize in the Little Mozart Crescendo International Music competition for playing the instrument at the prestigious Carneige Hall in New York.
He played Presto by Giovanni Pescetti on the grand piano on which the great Elton John had once performed. Besides him, there were 51 other pianists in the competition.

“I chose the number because I love the composition, its speed and tempo and my teacher had also asked me to play it.The experience was elegant,” said Aadarsh Mishra, the little pianist, who is a Class V student at North Scituate Elementary School, Rhode Island.
Aadarsh from Rhode Island was selected from among the children who auditioned in different towns of the US and Canada. “The environment at the Carneige Hall was very competitive. We were thrilled when he got a chance to play at the hall and win the competition,” said Akankshya Patnaik, his mother.
Aadarsh lives with his parents and younger brother in Rhode Island and is a huge fan of Beethoven. Aadarsh’s love for piano started when he was just seven years old and his parents encouraged him to take it up. “I wanted to see how he fares at it and likes it or not,” said Akankshya, a software engineer. Aadarsh is being tutored by piano teacher Nana Grace of RI Do Re Mi Music Academy since a year now and practises for one to two hours every day.
This year, Aadarsh entered the competitive environment, otherwise he played mostly in charities. On June 13, he played at the senior retirement community home along with 10 to 12 other students from his school.
Aadarsh also finds times to be with his two other favourites — tennis and mathematics — apart from tuning in to the famous Odia bhajan of Lord Jagannath, “Ahe Nila Saila”.

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