9-year-old pianist’s ‘fingers turn into dancers’ as he wows audiences

UPPER WEST SIDE — A little boy is putting out some very big music on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Alexander Zhou is only 9 years old but has a deep connection to music.

He started playing piano in kindergarten at Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School.

“Mostly I focus on the notes but I also try to imagine a picture in my mind, for example, when I play Chopin’s waltz. I imagine my fingers turning into dancers flying across the keyboard,” Zhou said.

He has performed at countless recitals and competitions, although his legs are not yet long enough to reach the pedals.

The fourth grader is a natural but admits it hasn’t always been easy.

“The hard part is sometimes you have to understand the piece wholly. If you don’t understand something, you don’t play it right,” Zhou said.

“It’s normalized amongst the other subjects and the academic outcomes, social, emotional outcomes, the outcome on the entire community are what every public school dreams to be,” Tony Mazzocchi with the Special Music School said.

When his nerves sometimes get the best of him, he says he takes a deep breath, stretches his fingers and eats candy.

Inside the New York City public school, along with academics, music is embedded in each day.