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American Morning

Piano Prodigy Being Compared to Mozart

Aired August 03, 2001 - 10:54   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a story we promised you early on, about this incredible kid who conquers everything he tackles. We're talking concert, stage performances all the way to ice skating competitions.

LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: Talk about talent. He's even being compared to Mozart. And he is only 9 years old, if you can believe it.

CTV's Colin Gray (ph) with the new millennium's wonder boy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COLIN GRAY, CTC REPORTER (voice-over): The music fills a room; the little boy playing it can barely reach the pedals with feet. 9 years old, he's limited in what he can play by the size of his hands. But Ian Wood seems limited in how well he can play by almost nothing.

The awards he has won fill the living room of his parent's house. In only the three years he's been playing he's been compared to Mozart with respect to genius at such a young age. The world renowned maestro of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra says the comparison is a fair one.

BRAMWELL TOVEY, VANCOUVER SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: It's something that normally people spend a lifetime acquiring, that kind of skill. Many musicians go through a lifetime without being able to say as much with their music as Bach -- of Bach as Ian does already. So it's an extraordinary gift.

GRAY: Tovey experienced that gift firsthand earlier this year when he invited Ian to play with the VSO. The performance was, to say the very least, a success.

There are ways, of course, in which Ian Wood is very much a 9- year-old boy: He likes to play with models. And he's not exactly long-winded when it comes to interviews.

(on camera): So when you're grown up, what are you going to do?

IAN WOOD: Do something with music.

GRAY (voice-over): His mother Shirley worries a little about the genius label, so she asked her son. Turns out he worries a little, too.

SHIRLEY WOOD, MOTHER: I like it; it made me feel good. But he doesn't like the expectation, because then he knows that people will expect him to play really good every single time. And he said he's not sure whether he can do that or not.

GRAY: For the moment, though, Ian Wood is sounding very view wrong notes. He plays violin almost as well as the piano. He also enjoys figure skating. This is him in a competition in Penticton. He won, needless to say.

At the end of the day, though...

I. WOOD: I like the music.

GRAY: And he plays it like few others of his age before him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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