“I’m sort of scared of that word,” he says. “Like other kids, I want to be normal.”
He looks like a normal kid: a youthful smile, innocent eyes, doesn’t want to sit still during the interview.
Setting foot in Vietnam for the first time Wednesday night, Zalmanov says he’s ready for tonight’s performance with the Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music Chamber-Symphony Orchestra, which comes as part of his Southeast Asian tour to Bangkok and HCMC.
Born in 1999, Zalmanov began studying music at the age of five.
Only four years later, his name is now recognized both in Israel and abroad as a young virtuoso comfortable playing even the most difficult pieces of classical music.
Zalmanov first appeared in public at age six and his first international tour was to the Netherlands and Denmark last December.
He won second prize for pianists under 13 at the Pnina Zaltzman Competition for Young Pianists, a special prize at a Rotary International Competition for young musicians in Moscow, and second prize at the Israeli TV competition “The Next Big Thing.”
But things have not always come easy for Zalmanov and his family.
His parents don’t know much about classical music and initially didn’t have enough money to buy a piano.
Money was particularly tight after relocating from their rural home to the city of Kfa Saba, where things were much more expensive, so that Tom could study music.
“When he was little, Tom always preferred playing with musical instrument toys, toys shaped like a guitar or a piano,” his mother Tanya, a 50-year-old computer technician, says.
“He used to imagine himself being a musician.”
Tanya says Tom now attends music school three times a week, practices about three hours a day and still has enough time for grammar school.
“When your son is only this young and develops this drive for music, who knows whether or not he would stick with it for sure?” Tanya says.”But we try hard to make sure he has the opportunity to play.”
Tonight, Zalmanov plays Mozart’s Sonata K454 and Schubert’s Impromptu Op 90.
He’ll also play the first movement of Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1 with the city’s orchestra, conducted by Do Kien Cuong.
Other Vietnamese artists, including pianist Nguyen Quynh Mai and violinist Truc Thuyen are also featured in the program, which opens at 8 p.m. at the HCMC Conservatory of Music.
Tickets for the show (VND150,000-200,000) have already sold out.
The concert is sponsored by the Embassy of Israel in Vietnam, Family Medical Practice in HCMC and the city’s Conservatory of Music.
According to Hoang Diep, director of the performing arts center at the conservatory, the concert could become an annual event introducing artists from Israel to Vietnam.
Zalmanov said he has been communicating with the conductor via email over the past month in preparation for the concert.
The young pianist is most excited to play Beethoven, his favorite composer.
“When I play, I hope people don’t applaud because they want to be friendly or just because I’m a kid,” Zalmanov says.
“I want them to applaud for the music that I play.”
Reported by Huong Le – Thanh Van |
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