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Piano prodigy to play award-winning composition in Vienna

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Piano prodigy lands top spot in international competition Thirteen-year-old Madelyn Nielsen has earned a trip to Vienna where she will perform her award winning composition.

A 13-year-old piano prodigy is about to take a trip of a lifetime to play her award winning composition in Vienna.

Music comes naturally to Madelyn Nielsen.

“I don't really have to think about it a lot or what I'm gonna do, I just sort of sit back and it comes to me,” says Madelyn. “It doesn't feel like it's me who's writing.”

It's a talent that still surprises even her biggest fan.

“I think there are other members of the family who would claim they have musical talent, but when it really comes down to it…” laughs Niels Nielsen, Madelyn’s father.

Madelyn has been playing the piano in her tiny hometown of Grand Desert, N.S. for five years. Soon she will jet-off to a much larger stage and audience.

Last winter, Madelyn submitted an original song to the Golden Key Music Festival, an international piano composition competition, and placed third in her age group. The honour comes with the trip of the lifetime to Vienna.

“I just really couldn't believe what I was seeing, because I had just looked it up on my iPad and I was going on the website and I saw it right there,” recalls Madelyn. “I was just so excited I jumped up out of my seat and I said, 'Mom, Dad, guess what, I just won third place.”

“We were flabbergasted,” says Niels.

So far, the largest audience that Madelyn's performed in front of, solo, has been about 45 people. Now, she's set to perform her piece in front of hundreds of spectators.

“I'm so excited, words can't begin to describe it,” says Madelyn.

In July, Madelyn will travel to Vienna, where she'll get the chance to tour museums and locations made famous by musicians, like the Salzburg site from ‘The Sound of Music,’ and one of the best known places where Mozart lived and worked.

“There's just some moments in pieces where you think, that's just such a Mozart moment,” says Madelyn.

The trip also gives Madelyn a big moment of her own, the chance to play her piece at the world-famous Ehrbar Hall in Vienna.

“I am pretty nervous because it's a much bigger crowd than I'm used to,” says Madelyn.

Madelyn hopes to someday become a music teacher and plans to keep composing and performing the music she loves, whether it's for large European audiences or just small ones here at home.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Caitlin Andrea