WINTER GARDEN, Fla. – At 3 years old, some little girls are seen playing with dolls, or learning about letters and colors and how to make sentences, but at that age, one Central Florida girl started making music after she found joy in the piano.
At just 7 years old, Abigail Huang is a natural on the piano. Some say she was born with the gift.
"She was 3 and a half, mom and I were in the kitchen, we had a baby grand piano out in the big living room. All of a sudden, music came from it," Abigail's mother, Chris Wong, said. "You know, we were like, 'Who's playing?' It was pitch perfect, and so we rushed to the piano and, you know, (were we) hearing this for real, or this is something...that somebody is pranking us?"
Wong said she was amazed to learn it was Abigail's tiny fingers on the piano keys.
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"Very shocking! Very shocking. We were down to our knees and crying. It was her playing every nursery song that she ever heard. It was just really her, you know, (deciding) 'I'm ready, I'm going to play for you guys to demonstrate that I actually know how to play piano,'" Wong said.
Ever since her family discovered her talent, Abigail's been invited to perform at local churches and community events.
"To this day, every time that we see her play, especially very well, you know, grand piano where sounds are very full and beautiful, we still have goose bumps. She continues to amaze me. No matter how big or small the event, she will honor it with respect and play very professionally," Wong said.
A year ago, she became a student to Anne Thorsen-Moran and Heidi Larson, two local piano teachers.
Is she considered a prodigy? Thorsen-Moran thinks so.
"Yes. We consider her a prodigy just in her composing, her playing, her playing by ear. She has what is called 'perfect pitch,' where she can play by ear -- and very long songs -- sometimes 12 pages," Thorsen-Moran said. "She has passion beyond her years, but she has a strong ability to improvise and compose, which makes her really special."
Larson agrees.
"From the second we saw her, you could tell her music comes from deep within. We work with hundreds of students, but that was something we had never seen before," Larson said.
News 6 at Nine's Carolina Cardona said Abigail's passion was easy to sense as she played a famous Chopin song.
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Abigail is now getting ready to perform in front of thousands at the Amway Center on Dec. 23, right before the Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat game.
"She will be playing a great rendition of Star Spangled Banner -- a piano solo. By my understanding, it's the first time ever a piano solo's been done without vocal," Larson said.
Wong said she hopes her daughter's passion will be one that continues inspiring good within the community.
"We hope that with the platform that we built for her, she will continue to use her music to have charity events to raise funds for children related charity foundations," Wong said.
Abigail's family started a nonprofit called Music Language Foundation to raise money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Wong said proceeds from her daughter's concerts and events go toward that organization.
For more information on the foundation, visit MusicLanguageFoundation.org, or Abigail's website, AbigailHuang.com/about.