CTV News on CTV - Canadian television's online home for news and entertainment

Note from editor: On Wednesday's edition of Canadian Originals on CTV National News, reporter Daniele Hamamdjian puts the spotlight on concert pianist Jan Lisiecki.

He's played all over the globe, with the world's best musicians.And he's 16.

Do you know a 'Canadian Original' we should be featuring? Please email us your ideas at originals@bellmedia.ca.

Here's Daniele's blog:

The day we caught up with Jan Lisiecki, he was alone on stage at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, going back and forth between piano no.1, and piano no. 2.

Somebody with no musical ear, aka moi, couldn't tell the difference. Put aside Mozart's Concerto No. 20, the piece he'd been rehearsing, just watching the 16-year-old play with such intensity: eyes closed, head moving in which ever direction the music dictates, is quite simply … beautiful.

In between that back and forth, Jan looks to the only person sitting in the 2,300-seat hall: mom.

He says something in Polish, she answers.

The back and forth continues.

Cameraman Dave Ellis gets closer to Jan, and ends up on stage, right behind the young virtuoso. Jan's head is still moving to the music, but turns around to smile at Dave, and turns back around to do his thing.

His thing… Think of Justin Bieber, but on the other side of the musical spectrum.

"Talent is only a small part of everything," he says, "you can't quantify or qualify talent."

Really?

Jan (pronounced ‘Yan') is mature, soft-spoken, humble, and not to quantify nor qualify or anything, but he's also frighteningly talented.

Born in Calgary to Polish parents, Jan has been playing piano since the age of five. He made his orchestral debut at the ripe old age of 9.

He's played all over the globe, including New York's Carnegie Hall, the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, to name just a few -- and he's shared the stage with the world's best, including cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Pinchas Zuckerman. He's won multiple international piano competitions.

Don't call him a genius though, and especially not a prodigy.

"Prodigy seems to be something that can be applied to someone like Mozart, after he's dead," he says, "and I'm still alive!"

The young man who skipped several grades says he's just doing what he genuinely loves. He wasn't pushed into it by his parents, or his teachers.

"My parents have been very supportive even though they're not musicians, they really aren't from the musical world, we've been learning, together all of it, from the beginning."

After he's picked his piano -- no.1 by the way -- the orchestra joins him on stage. In between his solos, he looks at mom and either waves or gives her a thumbs-up. Not as a statement, but as a question, ‘am I doing ok?'

She blows him a kiss. He smiles and waits for his next solo.

Jan is currently touring Atlantic Canada with the orchestra, hoping his music will reach a younger audience. Yes, a young audience, because "it's cool," he says.

"Jan, what's cool about classical music?" I ask him.

"Other music, you may go and party at a concert, classical music is serious, but it may show you things about yourself, it may make you reflect, touch you in a way other forms can't touch you."

Whether or not you are a fan of classical music – it is practically impossible not to be a fan of Jan.

Daniele Hamamdjian on Twitter

Check out this video of Jan Lisiecki playing Chopin's Etude Op. 25 No. 11 and No. 12: