By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
Christopher Suarez has made it to Carnegie Hall the traditional way — through practice, practice, practice.
The 10-year-old, fourth-grade Princeton Day School student will be playing his original composition “Knight’s Tournament” at the world-renowned venue on March 14. An invitation was extended to Christopher following his performance at the Music-Fest Rising Talents Festival auditions on Feb. 8 at the Westminster Conservatory in Princeton Borough, as one of hundreds of participants age 5 and up.
Christopher won a grand prize, entitling him to a performance in the Weill Recital Hall at the New York landmark in front of a large crowd that will include friends and family.
Elena Panova, a Westminster Conservatory faculty member and Christopher’s piano instructor, advised the young man to enter the competition and play his “Knight’s Tournament” composition, one of the original compositions he has authored, after a little less than three years of instruction.
”My teacher thought I could get there with (Knight’s Tournament),” said Christopher, as he sat in his Lawrence Township home after performing the impressive composition in his music room, the site of his piano and a collection of other instruments.
His mother, Suzanne, pointed to a stand holding a variety of recorders.
Christopher received the instruments for Christmas, said Ms. Suarez, a non-practicing attorney.
”Most kids are getting an X-Box for Christmas,” said Ms. Suarez, whose husband, Tom, is a certified public accountant with WithumSmith+Brown.
While noting that seeing such a fantastic result from one of Christopher’s first competitions is somewhat unusual, Ms. Suarez said that in other ways the 10-year-old’s upcoming trip to Carnegie Hall makes a lot of sense.
Ms. Suarez said she listened to a variety of classical music during her pregnancy. Also, at a very young age the boy exhibited an ability to pick out the sounds of instruments when the family attended orchestras and concerts, she said.
The decision to learn how to play the piano came after young Christopher saw a Mozart impersonator performing at Princeton Day School. He went home and said he wanted to study the instrument.
The recommendation to retain Ms. Panova, a Russian, came from neighbors who had also recommended the Princeton Day School. Ms. Panova has become an important part of Christopher’s life, according to Ms. Suarez — the instructor writes down the music as Christopher plays to help him develop his compositions.
Besides his exceptional musical abilities and collection of instruments, Christopher also has some interests more typical of a 10-year-old boy. He loves baseball and the New York Yankees, and his favorite player is their shortstop, Derek Jeter.
His musical tastes, according to Ms. Suarez, range from pop star Billy Joel, to the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, to the rock group Queen. When most kids were doing sing-a-longs with their parents, Ms. Suarez said, Christopher was singing Frank Sinatra in the car.
More recently, he has played the piano for his parent’s dinner guests. At one recent gathering, some guests were surprised to see that Christopher was the source of the music rather than the player piano in the Suarez music room.
The young man said he doesn’t know whether he will eventually learn to play all of the instruments littered around the music room. For now, he says, he’ll stick to playing his piano.

