'I want to go to the moon and play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata'

Lydian Nadhaswaram

Lydian Nadhaswaram is not your average 12-year-old kid. With merely four years of training behind him, the Chennai-born pianist has bagged the top spot at the first edition of America's global talent hunt show, The World's Best.

"I want to go to the moon and play Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata," says Nadhaswaram when asked of his aspirations, after he first made the boisterous claim during his outing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

But even after taking centre-stage at a James Corden-hosted global show, and bringing home a prize money of $1 million, Nadhaswaram makes it easy to decipher that he still has his head on his shoulders. He credits his father, Tamil music director Varshan Sathish, for enabling him to keep his feet on the ground.

The googly-eyed lad confesses that the attention he's received hasn't gone unnoticed. "People recognise me at places like the airport or malls. Others come home to give me bouquets. Some people have also video-called and cried. I know that they cry [with joy]. But, while I feel happy when I see them like that, I also feel sad," says the musician, who took to the stage to perform a medley of Beethoven's Fur Elise and Chopin's Etude on two pianos simultaneously, for his finale act.

Though fluent with the piano, Nadhaswaram plays a variety of instruments. For him, the journey to achieving his goals has only begun. "I want to keep learning all the time," says the child, who, quite literally, is aiming for the moon, after all.

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