Alberto Cartuccia Cingolan, aged 5, lives in Italy. At the 10th International Musical Competition in Penne, in the country’s Abruzzo region, he stunned audience members with an amazing rendition of Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major composed by Mozart. A video of the young boy’s performance was posted on Twitter, where it garnered more than 5 million views on the social media platform. Little Alberto comes from a musical family and was introduced to the piano when he was only 3 years old. He began with simple practice lasting 10 minutes long. He has now matured into a piano prodigy, My Modern Met reports.

The 5-year-old’s mother is a singing instructor and his father works as a teacher in the Lombardy region. When they introduced him to the piano two years ago, they quickly spotted his natural affinity for the instrument. Originally, Alberto could not read music when he first started. Even today, he is only just learning how to do so. However, he has what they call absolute pitch, which is the ability to identify and recreate any musical note. This is one of the skills that helped him stun audience members during the 10th International Musical Competition.

“He started playing during the months of the first lockdown,” Alberto’s mother Alessia Cingolani shared. “I was always at home, so we started playing with a small keyboard, in order to do something stimulating. From there I realized that Alberto was well-suited. [Doing this, my] husband and I noticed that he had perfect pitch. For a year and a half now, [Alberto] has been doing remarkable things, both for his age and for the time it took him to learn. Even though he still doesn’t know how to read [music] notes well, indeed almost not at all, he takes his position on the keyboard and repeats the pieces. He is very instinctive.”

Since he first began playing the piano, Alberto has attended and participated in numerous music competitions across the country. Of course, he is always accompanied by his parents. They have even recorded some of his best performances, uploading them to YouTube so he can reach an even wider audience around the world. Perhaps the young boy is following in the footsteps of classical music composer Mozart, one of the most notable child prodigies. As is well-known, Mozart began writing compositions when he was about 5 years old.