- Rebecca Seziba is a nine-year-old self-taught pianist.
- A video of her playing a Celine Dion song in a mall went viral, garnering more than a million views.
- International pianist Rahul Suntah called her “brilliant” and has since signed a collaboration contract with her.
A video of a nine-year-old girl in Cape Town playing the piano in a shopping mall without sheet music has gone viral, drawing the attention of international pianist Rahul Suntah, with whom she has now signed a collaboration contract.
Rebecca Seziba is a lover of classical music, much to the delight of her father Emmanuel. She is completely self-taught and has never set foot inside a music class.
“Most of his inspiration came from watching his brother Joshua play the piano fluently. He was also self-taught and all my children learned to play musical instruments by watching YouTube videos,” Emmanuel tells News24.
The family bought a new piano last year for the children to practice every day, which the proud father said was a “very expensive but brilliant investment.”
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“Rebecca has always had a great interest in playing the piano: she would practice for an hour every day, playing whatever classic love song she could think of.
“She’s really good at memorizing musical notes and most of the time she plays the entire duration of a song without even having notes in front of her,” Emmanuel added.
On Christmas Eve last year, Emmanuel said he took his family shopping at Table Bay Mall and found hundreds of people doing their last-minute Christmas shopping.
There was a huge white piano in the middle of the mall and he asked Rebecca if she wanted to play something for the shoppers, to which the bubbly young man nodded enthusiastically.
He played the main theme of the film. Titanic“My Heart Will Go On,” which had shoppers whipping out their phones to snap photos and video of the curly-haired prodigy.
The video has since been shared on social media and garnered over a million views.
Emmanuel said it’s not the first time Rebecca has played at the mall, as he takes her once a month to local malls that have pianos for public use.
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“Never in a million years did I think she would be recognized like this. We as a family are so proud of her and the accomplishments she is making along the way. We knew she had something special about her when she started watching her brother play. the piano and immediately could do what he does,” said Emmanuel.
Since then, her talents have caught the attention of international classical pianist and composer Rahul Suntah, who called her “brilliant”.
Since then, he has approached her and her family to sign a collaboration agreement. The contract was officially signed last week.
suntah said:
Wow, Rebecca is amazing. I am excited to collaborate with her.
Suntah’s manager, David Gummers, told News24 that thousands of pieces of music are sent to the record company every day and when they were sent Rebecca’s video, they couldn’t believe what she could do in a mall with no notes. in front of her.
“Cape Town has always been the city with a lot of talent and I know that Rahul and I are very excited for this collaboration to start soon,” added Gummers.
Emmanuel said her daughter is homeschooled and has a hectic schedule, but she always relaxes for an hour playing whatever she wants on the piano.
“I love playing the piano because it relaxes me and helps my brain focus. I really want to study music and become a professional pianist one day,” said Rebecca.
