Mourad Tsimpo, who lives in the council estate area of la cité de la Castellane (Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), is a young pianist who says he mainly learned to play “by ear, by instinct”.
At least twice a week, he has been honing his playing skills on a public-access piano in the corridors of the Marseille Timone hospital - and any other public pianos he can find.
He sometimes plays for up to seven hours at a time, according to locals.
But after a video of Mr Tsimpo playing in public was posted online (below, by Marseille local and Twitter user @Marston213), it was seen by the owner of a local music shop, Éric Scotto.
In response, Mr Scotto decided to give the teenager his very own piano for free, to enable him to practice even more.
Je sais même plus quoi dire juste écouter pic.twitter.com/OI5PkJHaUv
— Le narcissique (@Marston213) December 16, 2018
Mr Scotto said: “Now, we need to give him - and that is why we are here - the tools so that he can practice...because talent without work is nothing.”
Despite reaching a prodigious playing ability at a young age - including pieces by composers such as Chopin and Beethoven - Mr Tsimpou still describes himself “as a beginner”.
His father explained to the press that the boy’s musical ability was apparent from a young age. Before he played piano, he sang, and progressed musically thanks to his music teacher at school.
Mr Tsimpou now says that he would like to become a music teacher himself.
[#IncroyableTalent] L'histoire de Mourad relayée par @Marston213 nous tous a émus. Grâce à @scottoauguste Mourad n'aura plus à traverser Marseille pour pratiquer sa passion, il est rentré chez lui avec un piano et des rêves plein la tête. La magie de Noël a encore frappé pic.twitter.com/2pZgJxDH9I
— Samia GHALI (@SamiaGhali) December 16, 2018
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