Oregon Public Broadcasting

Musical talent can reveal itself at a remarkably young age. Mozart for example, is believed to have started composing at five.

Now an Oregon boy, Daniel Trang, is impressing musicians and teachers with his skills.

His talent revealed itself early. And at 11 years old, he's playing a variety of instruments and composing music for  professional musicians.

Kristian Foden-Vencil visited the young prodigy  at his home in northeast Portland.

Listening to Daniel Trang play, you might be forgiven for assuming classical guitar is his chosen instrument. But you’d be wrong.

He just picked it up a couple of years ago as a distraction.

Trang’s long black hair jumps around his tiny shoulders as his fingers dance up and down the frets. His eyes open and close behind wire-rimmed glasses.

It’s obvious he loves the guitar.

But when it comes to serious music, it’s the piano at which he really excels.

Daniel Trang: “I’m going to be playing Sonata in G, Adagio movement, from Hyden.”

Daniel Trang: “I’m 11 years old and I was born in Michigan, Grand Rapids. And I just moved to Oregon.”

Daniel Trang: “When I was young, my mum, just got me a piano. I don’t know I just had a feeling for loving the song, loving the piano pieces....”

Kristian Foden-Vencil: “And did it come naturally, or was it something that you really had to work hard at.”

Daniel Trang: “Actually, my mom would sit next to me to make me do my music, but then I started loving the piano. When I listen to music it helps me do math, but I don’t really know how. I was thinking about being a neural scentist. Studying on the brain.

Daniel Trang: “I usually come up with a story for the song, so that I can express the song. I kind of use the mood I’m in for when I’m composing. When I’m sad I write sad music. When I’m angry I sometimes write minor key music. But when I’m happy, I just write happy music, just like that.”

Daniel Trang: “I also have friends at Tai Kwon Doe, When we fight, like spar with our gear on, they won’t want to fight me. They just think I’m too quick and powerful. First tournament I got bronze, second tournament I got silver. I never tried getting gold. It just doesn’t feel right just to earn gold and wear it around and keep on bragging.”

Trang’s parents, Thu Ha Dinh and Timothy Trang, moved to the states when they were children in the 1970’s -- after the Vietnam War. He’s an electrical engineer. She’s an accountant. She says she gave up work when she realized she had a prodigy on her hands.

Thu Ha Dinh: “So when he started second grade, I still noticed that the teacher didn’t let him do anything challenging. So, that’s when I got the principal to step in and since then, Daniel jumped two or three grades in math, just within a few months.”

Eventually, she says, he outgrew regular school and she found an on-line school called ‘Connections Academy,’ where he studies at his own speed.

Laura Dillon is a teacher there.

Laura Dillon: “He is very advanced. He’s in the Gifted and Talented for language arts, and the math, and the high school math. And then he has this whole different musical piece to it, where he’s not only excelling with this lessons and performances, but composing for an adult chamber group. You know, it’s really actually kind of phenomenal.”

It all sounds a little too good to be true. So in an effort to dig-up a little dirt, OPB consulted the ultimate inside source, Grace Trang --  Daniel’s little sister.

Grace Trang: “I pick up the piano from my brother and my brother helps me a lot and I’m really glad to have an older brother like Daniel.”

Daniel Trang was recently chosen by the ‘Young Composers Project’ to write his own music for a professional ensemble. He's already begun working on that piece. 

It will debut at a concert at Lewis and Clark College this spring.