At first glance, Alec Van Khajadourian may come across as your typical Encino, California, pre-schooler: He loves playing video games, experimenting with cameras and running around his parents’ house with his little brother and the family Labradoodle, Chai.
But there’s so much more to the 5-year-old than meets the eye. Or ear.
“He loves doing 5-year-old stuff,” said his father, Joe Khajadourian. “But then, he sits at the piano and you’re like, ‘Wow. This is pretty special.'”
Alec is gifted with what music teachers call “perfect pitch.”
His mother, Diana Sanders, explains whatever note he hears, he identifies it perfectly.
“He can sing or play it,” the child’s mom said.
Joe and Diana discovered this when Alec was a toddler. He would hear a note and plink it out on the piano, finding the correct key almost instinctively.
Within a year or so, he was learning and playing complicated classical music on the piano without even reading sheet music. By age 5, he had won first prize in three international musical competitions, one of which was held in New York City.
After a visit to watch his first symphony there, he declared to his parents that one of his goals in life is the play piano at Carnegie Hall. In a couple of months, his dream will come true as he’s scheduled to perform at the famed venue and has been practicing daily for the debut.
A few weeks prior to the Carnegie gig, he will be tickling the ivories at LA’s Disney Concert Hall downtown LA, where he may have an opportunity to meet Gustavo Dudamel, director of the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. That’s significant not only because Alec immerses himself in classical music, but because he refuses to let his mom cut his hair short as a tribute to Dudamel, one of his personal musical heroes.
“It makes me feel good,” the pint-sized pianist said, when asked why he loves playing piano so much. “It feels calm.”
The young musician is scheduled to perform at Disney Concert Hall on July 1, 2025 and at Carnegie Hall on July 20, 2025.
