NPR Interviews JKCF Young Artist Award Recipient Oscar Paz-Suaznabar
You may remember Oscar Paz-Suaznabar from our blog post last November celebrating our 10-year partnership with From the Top, the preeminent showcase for young musicians broadcast weekly on NPR. Oscar is a 2014 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award recipient who performed at a special taping of From the Top in Washington, DC. He started to play the keyboard at the age of two, and by the age of nine he was performing at Carnegie Hall. He was recently interviewed about his music on NPR’s All Things Considered.
Each year From the Top‘s Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award program provides 20 outstanding young musicians with financial need between the ages of eight and 18 with a $10,000 scholarship to advance their artistic development and education. Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists also perform on From the Top and participate in arts leadership training to spread the power of classical music.
When This 9-Year-Old Pianist Plays, He Feels The Music
Oscar started playing his older sister’s keyboard by ear when he was just 2. The sorrow he conveys when he plays “The Lark” by Russian composer Mikhail Glinka is drawn from the kind of loss any 9-year-old can understand.
“It reminds of when I lost my pet bunny. I named her Symphony,” he tells NPR’s Robert Siegel. “And I was really sad, and this reminds me of ‘The Lark.’ It’s a very sad and emotional piece that has ups and downs.”
Oscar says when he plays “The Lark” he thinks about Symphony.
To hear Oscar’s interview, visit NPR.