When she was nine, Daniela Leibman won a First Prize in the Young Artists Category at the International Russian Music Piano Competition with this performance of works by modern classical composer Nicolas Slominsky (video.) In October she’ll play Carnegie Hall.
The 11-year-old was born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2002 to a Mexican mother and an American father that had music in their blood. She started playing the piano at the age of three and by the age of six became a professional musician, hence the word “prodigy”.
You can say it’s in the genes, her father is an accomplished violinist and her grandmother is a concert pianist. Her mother Maria Luisa Martinez, a native of Guadalajara, saw right away that even at the age of three she had a gift for understanding rhythm and possessed an excellent memory for music.
In 2010, she participated in the “Varallo International Piano Competition” and won a scholarship for summer studies in the United States.
In 2012 she made her solo debut with the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra and was chosen by Lang Lang, the most famous living pianist, to perform with him at the O2 World concert.
Daniela will be making her Carnegie Hall debut in October playing the Shostakovich Second Piano Concerto with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, according to BWWClassicalMusicWorld.
Here’s Daniela on Good Morning Dallas earlier this summer: