Lydian Nadhaswaram – 14-year old pianist and musician who won CBS talent show – ‘The World’s Best’ in 2019

Lydian Nadhaswaram is a pianist and musician from Chennai, who won CBS talent show The World’s Best in 2019 and the associated 1 million dollar prize money. A child prodigy and the son of Tamil music director Varshan Sathish, he is undisputed king of the piano, and plays 14 different music instruments before he reached 12. He plays Indian classical instruments like tabla and mridangam, western musical instruments like western drum and folk instruments like kanjira and thappatai. He marks his debut as a music composer for Mohanlal starrer Barroz: Guardian of D’Gama’s Treasure, which also marks the directorial debut of the actor.

Started playing drums at the age of 2, he plays 14 music instruments by early teens

Lydian Nadhaswaram was born into a musical family of Chennai in year 2005. Both his father and sister are musicians. He exhibited his musical talents when he was an infant and started playing drums at the age of 2. He was barely 23 months old when he started playing drums in a perfect rhythmic, 3/4 drum beat pattern.

When he was introduced to a piano at the age of 8, he started playing tunes created by legends like Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart and Liszt, without receiving any formal training. Realizing his music talents and potential, his parents nourished his talents, and he also received guidance from many music legends. Initially he had only a tabla master.

Slowly he mastered many other music instruments, without any barrier, and it included both Indian classical and modern western instruments too. He started playing piano at the age of 9. He is known for conjuring up renditions at lightning speed. Though he is still to reach the peak of octaves with his tiny fingers, he owns a unique skill to reproduce even the toughest pieces composed by any composer.

The siblings never receive formal school education

His parents didn’t give formal school education to Lydian and his sister, as they dream to see them as great musicians. To get introduced to the school education, his parents sent him to school for two years and teach basic lessons of mathematics, science and history at home. As they felt that music has so much to learn, they didn’t want to waste their kids’ precious time through formal education.

Now he is an international star musician

He appeared in his first ever international show at the age of 9. It was in Australia, where he performed as a drummer before a huge audience. Now, with the reputation of a musical prodigy he receives invitations from musical events across the globe and has already performed in US, Australia and Malaysia. He also bagged a Malayalam movie as a music composer. Along with his sister Amirthavarshini, he has won scholarships for child musicians to attend the International Music Seminars summer camp on Long Island, New York. He also appeared on the Susana Gimenez TV show in Argentina, viewed by millions.

Lydian Nadhaswaram – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. Lydian is a mode in ‘Seven tone musical scale’ of western music. So his father gave him the rare heard and interesting name. His elder sister Amrita Varshini’s name is also filled with music.

2. He initially achieved fame as a drummer, and later he turned a pianist. He was already a known name in Chennai as a drummer, when A. R. Rahman, the guest for a music show expressed his wish to meet the talented young drummer. He was only 7 years old then.

3. He played two pianos at the same time at America’s World’s Best in 2019, and the video went viral over net. He later played piano blindfolded in Ellen’s show.

4. Before he reached 12, he mastered the technique of playing the piano blindfolded just like music legend Mozart, and his skills too are compared with the legend.

5. He became a part of the German documentary about Beethovan in 2019. It included 6 pianists across the globe and lucky Lydian is the single pianist featured from his country.

6. His dream stage is moon. He dreams to go to moon and play piano there. He also dreams to perform at Carnegie Hall, New York.