5 Year Old Blind Pianist Performs in Singapore

This little girl is from korea. She is only five years old and blind, but Yoo Ye-Eun's little hands find the right notes onthe black and white keys of her piano, despite the fact that she's never actually seen the instrument.


Yoo was born without any eyeballs and was abandoned by her birth parents.She is raised by her adoptive parents, Yoo Jang-joo and Park Jeong-soon.At the age of three, Yoo surprised her adoptive parents by suddenly playing a Korean song, which her mother loved to sing, on an old piano given to them by a neighbour.Yoo immediately fell in love with the instrument and continued to play,improving day by day.


[Park Jeong-soon, Adoptive Mother]:"When she was three years old, she had played a part of a song from church. And some other easy children's songs."Her father began playing her different pieces of music with the computer and amazingly she could play every tune after hearing it just once.


[Park Jeong-soon, Adoptive Mother]:"I got goose bumps, because she never had any music lessons from anybody. She is blind and was just a three-year-old baby. How could she find the keyboard and play the melody? So I got goose bumps."She amazed everyone with her piano skills in a contest on a popular Korean television show, and took home the cash prize of three million won or $3,900 U.S. dollars.Her act on the Youtube website attracted more than two million hits.With her newfound fame, Yoo now gets invited to perform at many shows and events, including a recent banquet in Singapore, attended by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.


Yoo performed Chopin's Fantasy in C# Minor, drawing huge applause from the audience.When asked what she wanted to be when she grows up,she replies that she wants to be a pianist, but not just any pianist...a "great pianist".Her mother says the future is unclear because of Yoo's handicap, but that she and her husband will support Yoo in whatever her dreams may be.