Eleven-Year-old Brazilian Wins Award in International Piano Competition

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – To the sound of the Brazilian Suite, young Théo Siqueira de Proença Singh, eleven years old, closed the 9th Maria Herrero International Piano Competition, in Granada, Spain. The only prize-winning Brazilian, the resident of Sorocaba, State of São Paulo, stood out in children’s category B, from eleven to thirteen years old, and won the musicianship award.

The competition was held on July 11th and was attended by pianists from various countries, such as the United States, Russia, Germany, China, Turkey, Spain, and also Brazil. The award was divided into categories: children, children B, youth, young artist, and special.

Théo’s mother told G1 news site that her son has been passionate about music since he was a child and she was touched to see him representing Brazil, particularly because he was invited to close the awards ceremony.

She says that Théo’s appearance in the international competition occurred after he won awards in two domestic competitions in 2017 and 2018.

The young pianist says he realized he loved the piano when he was able to play a Mozart piece by ear (without a score). “I started taking lessons, but I was able to play that piece by ear. The teacher told me that was difficult for someone of my age”.

Théo says that when he learned that he was going to represent Brazil in the children’s category B he was nervous, but that he trained hard so that everything would work out well.

Music is emotion to him. “When you play music you forget everything, you put your emotion, your feelings into it. That’s what music means to me, and it touches others,” he says.

He now intends to continue studying to pursue music in his future. “I intend to be a pianist. But I intend to be a good pianist, not just anyone. I want to be a different one,” he says.