Knicely Done: Piano is Sarah’s passion

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Sarah Fernandes has made her mark in spelling, with back-to-back appearances in the National Spelling Bee competition at ages 11 and 12.

She is also more than proficient on the piano, having won international competitions.

Her mother, Sharmila Braganza, remembers when Sarah first touched a keyboard at the age of one.

“We were in the store buying a piano for our older daughters,” recalled Sharmila. “Sarah was standing on her tip toes trying to play the keys.”

When Sarah was two she would climb up on the piano bench and try to play notes that she heard her sisters playing earlier in the day.

“She has perfect pitch,” explained Sharmila. “She can hear a note and tell you what the note is.”

With lessons from Dr. Washington Garcia, whom Sharmila says was a child prodigy, Sarah has developed exceptional skills that have brought invitations to play at Carnegie Hall and in international competitions.

“I really love hearing what other people composed, especially like famous composers like Beethoven, Mozart and Chopin, because they had very complex minds and since they were geniuses they were able to make complex layers with lots of layers and I really love that. One of the fun parts of music is when you create someone else’s composition in your own interpretation, and that’s fun.”

Sarah practices up to four hours a day, when she’s not learning new words to spell in the dictionary. Practice is something she embraces.

“When I practice my mind is solely focused on the note and you want to bring that feeling into the audience. It’s very interesting when you think about it. You’re trying to connect the piano to the audience’s hearts. So you have to bring that into your piece and the only way to do that is by feeling it yourself.

Sarah can play many of the renowned compositions by heart. And she has composed her own songs, most recently to honor and celebrate the Fourth of July’s significance for our country.

She is a straight A student and is very fond of math. Concerning her future. Sarah is certain of one thing:

“As far as I can see right now I want to see piano in my future in some aspect or another,” she said. “I want to be a pianist, a piano teacher, whatever it has to be I just want it to include piano because music has made an external mark on my life and I want to keep sharing my music with other people because I feel that it what I was born to do.”

Knicely Done!

To see more of Sarah’s work, click here.

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