Playing From Her Heart

by Rachel Stockman

As the lights began to dim, the audience anticipating what they came to hear, a dark haired sixteen year old female pianist quietly made her way onto the stage. The youngest musician ever to play at Carnegie Hall, this pianist approached the piano bench with reserve and respect. This was indeed special, this was indeed a risk, only to be outreached by the fact that Marie Nazar was going to play one of the most difficult pieces for the piano, The Goldberg Variations by Bach for seventy six minutes without interruption.

Under the gigantic description of a musician, one must not only be patient, devoted, and truly love music, but one must also be willing to take risks. Not only did Ms. Nazar assume a risk of playing one of the most challenging pieces of music for the piano, but she also underwrote the cost of Carnegie Hall, a demonstration of confidence in her ability to play this piece, and play it well. "I was interested in performing this piece in front of an intellectual audience. Where else would you find an intellectual audience than at Carnegie Hall," she confessed in an interview a few weeks after her performance. Ms. Nazar received a standing ovation on the night of her performance, and she also demonstrated supreme professionalism as an artist as she played an encore for a very appreciative audience.

Marie Nazar is a prodigy pianist. She has spent most of her life in front of the piano. She has performed in many concert halls all over the world. From Armenia, a small country which was once a part of the Soviet Union, Ms. Nazar comes from a family of musicians, her father is a composer, her mother a musicologist. As young as the age of five, she started showing signs of musical genius. Her first public concert was at the age of eight with the