Skepticism

Warning: This post requires tissues

Check out this video of the sweetest, cutest, most adorable little prodigy ever.  (But I warn you, it’s NSFW if you can’t handle getting a little misty eyed in front of co-workers.)

Unlike Akiane, that religious painting prodigy girl, little Ye Eun is not a hoax set up by her parents to aquire fortune and fame.  She’s just a little girl with a pretty bad-ass talent.  Before checking it out though, grab some Kleenex.

If you don’t shed a tear watching a blind 5-year-old Korean orphan play piano for her adopted mother, you have no heart.

[hat tip: Strollerderby]

Elyse

Elyse MoFo Anders is the bad ass behind forming the Women Thinking, inc and the superhero who launched the Hug Me! I'm Vaccinated campaign as well as podcaster emeritus, writer, slacktivist extraordinaire, cancer survivor and sometimes runs marathons for charity. You probably think she's awesome so you follow her on twitter.

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14 Comments

  1. She’s just incredible: bumbling around the keyboard and still making such beautiful, imperfect sounds. Just gorgeous!

    And here’s me bawling at work…

  2. Coming from the pragmatic perspective of a former piano teacher, I think this is for real. They really overemphasized how well she was playing, from a technical standpoint — I’ve played both pieces, and the second one is difficult enough that she just barely touched on the theme. That said, she’s clearly got one of those savant things going on, and once her hands get bigger it will improve her accuracy a hundredfold.

    I do hope that this exposure will make it so they can get her lessons with someone who’s got experience with young prodigies. What she has now is one of those fluke things in some people’s brains, similar to a photographic memory or the ability to mimic voices. But that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t be developed into a really legitimate musical performing ability, and I hope they can help her find that without having to turn her into a sideshow freak (which Mozart pretty much was for a fair amount of his childhood).

  3. That first paragraph sounded a little harsh … I was trying to say that the mistakes made it much more believable to me. If the playing had been more accurate (remember the youtube video of the guy who plays an oversized keyboard by bouncing balls onto it?), I would have been much more skeptical.

  4. I’m offering no comment on whether the girl is really playing or not, but:

    That first paragraph sounded a little harsh … I was trying to say that the mistakes made it much more believable to me. If the playing had been more accurate (remember the youtube video of the guy who plays an oversized keyboard by bouncing balls onto it?), I would have been much more skeptical.

    That is exactly the argument believers in TV mediums give when faced with the many misses in a cold reading.

    Just saying!

  5. I really hope that was for real. I hate having my emotions played with like that. If she can play half as well as that, she’s got a real talent for her age. Hope they don’t turn her into a sideshow, get her into a school away from the limelight until she’s old enough.

  6. Come one guys.. It MUST be real! I mean, the girl is obviously really blind! Why would they tell the truth about one thing but not the other?!?!

    Seriously though, whether she’s really playing or not, wasn’t she just cute as a button?

  7. There are 2 main difference between the little girl and woo.
    1) She isn’t breaking the basic laws of physics. What she can do is difficult, but not technically impossible.
    2) Her hit ratio is way higher and more accurate than your average psychic. Even with the small mistakes.

  8. She really is adorable. And another nice thing about her vs Sylvia is that you can’t get lung cancer from walking near this little girl.

  9. She is truly adorable, but this kind of talent is not uncommon, so forgive me for not being all teary-eyed. As a musician and a teacher, I’ve met many children with excellent senses of pitch, and it makes sense that a child without sight would have an even more discriminating ear.
    All skepticism aside, what bothers me is that they kept calling her “Mozart” but she only played Beethoven and Chopin! Sheesh. Know your composers, people.

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