Montreal student takes home prestigious music award – Montreal

It doesn’t acquire lengthy to notice that 16-12 months-old Montrealer, Devon Packer has a gift.

Packer has beloved the piano for as lengthy as he can bear in mind.

When he was a few decades previous, he questioned his parents for piano classes.

Soon after numerous refused to acquire him as a college student, simply because of his age, the McGill Conservatory acknowledged him at the age of five.

“My mothers and fathers, they have this tale. I went to Parc des Rapides [at two years old] and I took a wood adhere and started off conducting the rapids,” he laughed.

More than the decades, Packer’s talent has introduced him all about the globe, from venues in Canada to many others in Europe and even New York’s Carnegie Hall.

His dad and mom say songs has come to be section of who he is.

“He loves doing personally, he loves observing other men and women accomplish, he loves listening to new sounds,” said his father, David Packer.

“Music is in him and he’s in the audio.”

Until now, the Royal Vale student has focused a large amount of his time to the piano, but through the pandemic, as his performances obtained cancelled, he started off to focus on composing audio.

In March, he was identified for his abilities and awarded the 2022 Commonwealth International Composition award for his music ‘Reaching.’

“I was actually proud of him and content that he was receiving this recognition that he actually deserves,” explained his songs trainer at Royal Vale, Michelle Smith.

“All of the difficult perform that he place in on his individual, while at residence.”

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Devon will be graduating from Royal Vale this summertime.

Subsequent yr, he’ll be attending Marianopolis School, exactly where he’ll keep on to go after his research and his intention of one particular working day turning out to be a thriving pianist and composer.

But until eventually then, now that are living performances are back, he’s enthusiastic to be enjoying at Spots des Arts in June.