Raising an Accidental Prodigy

Sue Shellenbarger:

onrad Tao, it goes without saying, is precocious. He started playing the piano at 18 months, began violin lessons at 3 and made his concert debut playing Mozart with an adult orchestra at 8. At age 9, he began studying at the Juilliard School in New York. Now 16, he has performed solos with symphonies in Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore and other cities in the U.S. and Europe.

For all the parents who relentlessly drive their children to succeed, there is a quieter group, like Conrad's parents. Mingfang Ting, Conrad's mother, says she has long worried that her son would feel pressured or that his prodigious talent would upend their own lives.

When Dr. Ting first heard Conrad playing the piano as a toddler, "I would literally think there was something wrong with him," she says. Unnerved, she sometimes called her husband, Sam Tao, at work, held up the phone and said, " 'Listen, he's playing again.' It was a little scary," she says.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 1, 2011 1:06 AM
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