Brigitte’s feet dangle above the ground when she sits on the piano bench, her hands moving gracefully across the keyboard.

With long brown hair in a ponytail and bow, she casts her eyes shyly downwards when her mother, Nicole Sun, asks if she likes piano and if it is fun.

“Yeah, fun,” Brigitte replies.

Brigitte’s father, Tao Xie, signed her up for piano lessons on Zoom about a year ago to give her something to do during lockdown.

“At the beginning, I never expected that she’s going to be a prodigy or anything,” he says. “But yeah, it turns out it’s amazing.”

Brigitte is the youngest winner of the prestigious Elite International Music Competition, which has earned her a spot at Carnegie Hall.

She was supposed to play there as part of the American Protégé International Music Talent Competition in November last year. That got postponed to this November and now to next year due to the pandemic.

Brigitte’s mother gives credit to her piano teacher, Felicia Feng Zhang.

“Brigitte came to me when she was just two months after three years old,” her teacher says. “From the lessons, I observed she has a curious mind and loves to learn. We call that passion.”