Parents Should Start Them Young

A while back, the Symphony was contacted by a Dallas Morning News staffer who wanted to start her son on a piano before he was three. However, her husband, who played for a well known NFL team, didn't want his son wimping around with musical instruments. What to do?

We recommended introducing the boy to a piano to see if he would he play it or tackle it. Assuming he wanted to play, musicians from the Symphony orchestra said that around five was a good age to start piano. Earlier for more compact instruments.

We asked the guest artists from recent Symphony Series and International Chamber Series when they got started. (Mozart began clavier lessons at age 3; Elton John took up the piano at the same age)

2 years Janice Frehlauer, violin (piano at 4 years) 3 years Stirling Trent, violin 4 years Shannon Lee, violin 5 years Elena Dorozhkina, piano Christina Kim, piano Anton Mordazov, piano John-Henry Crawford, cello Rick Wu, piano Anna McDonald, piano Alison Chang, piano 6 Years Sihyung Kim, violin Wyndham Tsai, cello Violetta Zharkova, piano 8 years Grace Ho, piano, (cello at 9 years)