He approaches the keyboard with complete ownership... 

Each movement gave the audience no option but to applaud. When you can receive applause after every movement of a Mozart concerto, you have achieved a link with the music and the audience. After the prolonged ovation, Gavin returned with an encore. I call it a hand to hand relay. Gavin’s fluid runs seemed to be
like a ball being tossed from hand to
hand...

Gavin will return, there is no limit to his talent.

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 GRANVILLE – If ever there was an ace of their trade, it’s classical pianist Gavin George, the son of Eric and Mary George of Granville. Though still only 15-years-old, Gavin’s skills have impressed people worldwide.

“We say ‘work ethic,’” his mother, a former teacher of gifted students in Westerville, added, “but to Gavin, his time on the piano is not work as most of us think of it. It’s more of a fulfilling pleasure, a need to master that which he’s passionate about.”

Gavin explains it this way. 

“I really enjoy when I’m able to completely immerse myself in the music,” he said, “breathing life into it so it leaves an emotional impact on others.”  It’s a zone he enters every morning at 6 a.m. for his “first piano session” of the day. Precision, after all, takes practice, even with such enormous talent.

“I believe I have an innate passion for playing the piano and classical music,” Gavin said from his Granville home. “From the first time I heard and experienced it, I felt a continual force drawing me back. This has been an inherent part of everyday life as for long as I can remember.”

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Innate ability fueled by 'rage to master' is a key driver of young children with exceptional talent...Gavin’s journey as a pianist started early and decidedly. Classical music calmed him as an infant. When he was about a year old, he heard Handel’s Messiah on a Christmas CD and began greeting visitors with “Hallelujah!” ...The concept of “rage to master” resonates with the Georges. “You couldn’t feed him enough music,” says Eric. “He devoured whatever you put in front of him.” Gavin, who is homeschooled by Mary, gets up around 6 a.m. and heads to the piano, where he practices for hours at a time—until he accomplishes his musical goals. “It’s not a task. I have a passion for music. It’s something I look forward to,” he says. ....Despite their early success, prodigies often struggle to sustain their expert performance. They may feel pressured to excel or socially isolated. Raising a prodigy can be difficult for parents, too, who have no road map. “Honestly, I don’t sleep some nights because I don’t know if I’m doing the right thing,” says Mary. These doubts diminish, however, when she recalls the happiness her son exuded during his earliest days playing piano and his radiant face after performances today. “It’s pure contentment,” she says. “It’s so rare that you find something that can give you that pleasure. That’s what life is about.”

Last April, George, now 14, made his debut as a soloist with the Columbus Symphony; this weekend, he is playing for the first time with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra.

On Saturday at the Southern Theatre, George teamed with ProMusica’s masterful musicians for an exhilarating performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 21.”

The performance was the highlight of a program filled with exuberant, ebullient music; scarcely a downbeat note was heard in a concert that served as a perfect start to spring.

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While George enjoys performing a solo repertoire as it allows him more control, he also likes the added dimension of working with 80 or more musicians in an orchestra working toward a unified goal and sharing their passion for music with the audience, George said.

An Ohio native, George has played Carnegie Hall twice and in Europe, but location is inconsequential.

“The pre-show excitement and nerves are there no matter where I perform, and once the performance begins my goal is just to be able to relax, become the music and bring it to life for the audience,” he said...

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Tonight’s concert is George’s first with the Columbus Symphony, with which he has a long history — despite his young age.

“I’ve been a fan of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra since I was 4, when I first heard them perform live,” George said.

The pianist is no stranger to Mendelssohn’s “Piano Concerto No. 1,” either; he has performed the piece on four previous previous occasions.

“It grabs your attention right from the beginning,” George said. “It’s so full of energy..." 

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Granville, OH native Gavin George first appeared on the Tri-C Classical Piano Series in November of 2014 at the age of eleven. He returned to Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art on Sunday afternoon, February 12, now thirteen, several inches taller, and even more mature and nuanced in his playing than before — and before was jaw-droppingly impressive...

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Gavin George was the 12-year-old soloist for the concerto. That’s five years younger than Mozart was when he wrote the piece.

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It is an immense pleasure to watch someone from our community in the early stages of their career. It is even more exciting to be around someone who is so excited about the music he plays, that he can't wait to share it with as many people, and other creatures, as possible.

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There are probably other 11-year-old pianists who can wow an audience with technical fireworks, but it’s difficult to imagine another young performer who could come close to Gavin George in sheer musical maturity.

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Listen to Gavin's radio interview and live performance on "The Sound of Applause" here.

Gavin's interview begins at 22:00.

On Sunday afternoon, April 27, a large crowd gathered at Severance Hall to hear a performance by the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra under the direction of the group’s music director and conductor Robert L. Cronquist. But I am sure that, like myself, most audience members were simply not prepared for the remarkable musical event that would take place during the concert’s final work, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto #1 in G minor, performed by ten-year-old Gavin Michael George. Indeed, musical genius was on display as we sat mesmerized by the young pianist’s stunning performance of Mendelssohn’s vibrant concerto.

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Gavin George joined Music Director Robert Cron­quist and the Lakeside Sym­phony Orchestra (LSO) as the featured piano soloist for an inspiring evening concert in Hoover Auditorium.

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The piano began to vibrate as Gavin George’s hands thundered across the keys during the furious runs of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

Some precocious children might learn music quickly; others might work to master technique. But Gavin has all the skills necessary for greatness, his teachers say, plus an emotional understanding of music that can’t be taught.

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His performance of the Third Beethoven Piano Concerto was simply stunning. It reminded me again of “old-masters”, with very subtle pedaling, a deep, warm tone, long singing phrases, and impeccable technique. At the risk of being thought of as sentimental I have to admit that I started crying somewhere around the development section and did not stop until the last chords. The joy on Gavin’s face when he was done, the tears that sprung to his eyes as he was taking numerous bows, all told about the unbridled joy of playing.

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It's a thrill for any musician to play New York's Carnegie Hall. But how much more exciting -- and scary -- is it for a 6-year-old?

Sunday night, a very young pianist from Granville, Ohio, named Gavin George was given that chance. He wowed the audience with Mendelssohn's Venetian Gondola Song No. 2.

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