By Heidi Trautmann

We were given a taster of Görsev’s talent on May 28 when Rauf Kasimov introduced his seven piano students to us. Now, on June 8, she stood her own solo piano concert, a girl in white, her hair done up in a bun, silver ballerina shoes on her feet, her face unsmiling and concentrated. A girl at the age of 10 years.

The concert hall was full, most of them already her fans such as I. The stage was decorated with many tea lights and when Görsev stepped on to the stage to greet her audience, with one hand on the piano as if seeking for support, I clenched my hands in excitement. And then she sat down…gathering her full concentration on the music ahead, Prelude and Fuga No. 2 by J.S. Bach and Sonata in A, Variations, Menuetto and Alla Turca by W.A.Mozart.  She started to play, her small head in profile to me bending over the piano keys, using her whole body to melt into the music, to become one with it.

A child? That was not a child playing Schubert and Chopin. What does she know about the pain and suffering of the men who have composed these wonderful pieces of music. She knew it and we heard that she knew it.

The applause was never ending and waves of admiration and respect were meeting her up there next to the instrument which has become the most important part in her life.

As Mr Nazif Bozatli, the coordinator of the Environmental Association Temiz Deniz said quite correctly when he addressed the audience: “I felt that the composers of this evening’s music have silently and smilingly been witnessing within these old walls Görsev’s great talent.”

As an encore we heard Rachmaninov played with six hands, with Görsev, her teacher Rauf Kasimov and Görsev’s mother Öznan Uzuner, herself a concert pianist and piano teacher.

On leaving the concert hall I heard someone say behind me: “I think I have wasted my life!”