- April 25, 2024
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Where words fail, music speaks.
That quote by Hans Christian Andersen rings true for 12-year-old Noah Arazashvili, of Daytona Beach, who performed his first 40-minute piano concert inside the Casements during the third-annual Ormond Beach Live Original Music and Art Festival on Saturday, Sept. 25. Noah began his performance with a 15-minute set on the side main stage at Rockefeller Gardens, and for his mother, Rachel Arazashvili, it marked a proud moment for not just Noah, but for the autism community as a whole. It showed that this population has amazing gifts to share with the world, she said.
“We’re raising him up to recognize his strengths and not focus on his weaknesses, and, as an advocate for autism, that’s what I encourage parents to do," said Arazashvili, who is the executive director of Kidds are First, an Ormond Beach-based nonprofit which provides foster, orphaned and disadvantaged children with items such as clothing, new school supplies, and special occasion attire.
Noah, who goes by Noah A-Z on stage, began playing piano when he was around 3 years old. Prior to that, however, his parents noticed he gravitated toward music. Though his speech was delayed, he found a way to communicate with his parents through the pre-programmed songs on his keyboard. Eventually, he learned to play the songs himself by memorizing the sequence of the keys that lit up as the songs played.
His mother said it was his superpower.
"He’d get on the keyboard and it was just like this light went on," Arazashvili said. "It was his world and his element and he would just play these songs.”
At age 7, Noah fired his piano teacher, not because he didn't like him, but because he was already composing songs on his own. He couldn't express that what his teacher was instructing was too easy for him. Later, his parents found 10 original songs on his iPad, all which Noah had composed using the GarageBand application.
Then, as a family, they went through each song and named them after aspects of Noah's life at the time: "Me, Myself and iPad," "Gluten Free R&B" and "B12 Stomp" are among the titles.
Those 10 songs would become Noah's first album, released in 2016 and titled, "Rhythm Unspoken." They celebrated his CD's release party at EasterSeals, and the money he made allowed him to buy his upright piano, which cost him $35 on Swip-Swap.
Arazashvili said she was blown away when she saw him perform at Ormond Beach Live. He nailed the concert, she said. Instead of sheet music, the only thing on his piano stand was a script to remind him what to say to the audience. All the songs he performed, including an original, were done so by memory.
For his part, Noah said he simply loves to learn new music on the piano.
“I feel like it touches my soul," Noah said.
