Talent Is The Key

CHRISSY HARRIS meets an Exeter teen making the most of her extraordinary musical talent…

NINA Savicevic wanders over to the piano in St Stephen’s Church, sits on the stool and opens the lid. What happens next stuns the room into silence.

The whole place suddenly fills with the kind of music that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end.

People come in from the street outside to see this incredible 16-year-old work her magic on the instrument she has been playing since she was five.

Former Maynard School pupil Nina recently made the finals of the Scottish Youth International Competition and has won prizes at music festivals in Taunton and Birmingham. She is also auditioning for the BBC Young Musician of the Year 2018.

Currently studying at Wells Cathedral School, Nina is now being taught by respected piano teachers Professor Hilary Coates and her husband Christopher Elton.

“My piano has improved so much,” says Nina, who has played all over the world and performed her first concert in St Petersburg at the age of five.

“Every year, my love for piano just gets stronger and stronger. Obviously, during concerts and performances you get nervous but I’m learning so much. Hopefully in 10 years’ time I’ll just be getting better and better.”

Nina was born in Plymouth and has lived in Exeter most of her life. The family moved to Russia for a year when Nina was younger as part of her father’s history and Russian degree at Exeter University.

It was in St Petersburg that Nina went to her first piano lesson and her talent was spotted.