Young muso reaps in rewards
VICTORY PARK - Watch out Mozart. 14-year old Benjamin Valkin is in a class of his own behind a keyboard.
Benjamin Valkin (14), from King David School in Victory Park was awarded the Trinity College London medal for the highest marks in the Gauteng region for the Grade 1 to 5 music exams. He completed the Grade 5 exam on 17 May attaining a near-perfect score of 97 percent.
Benjamin has been tinkling the ivories since he was a few months old and able to sit at the keyboard, and started formal piano lessons when he was five years old.
He also won the Classical Music Junior Prize in the National Eisteddfod Academy’s Young Performers Award Competition this year.
“Swiss experts say there is growing evidence that parts of the brain that control motor skills, hearing and memory skill become more active when a person learns to play an instrument. Benjamin translated these skills into a performance that is musical, sensitive and technically outstanding. It is a privilege to nurture this young talent,” his teacher Lorna Heher said.
This young muso also likes to listen to jazz and Latin piano, especially to piano legends Herbie Hancock and the incredible Chucho Valdez.
His goals are to do well in upcoming competitions and piano exams, and one day play piano in a professional group.
