ShawneeDispatch.com

Nathan Brandwein's family may live in Shawnee, but his piano talents have allowed the 24-year-old musician to travel the world to showcase his playing.

Brandwein won the Music Teachers National Association National Music Competition March 29 in Kansas City, as a result of which he recently was able to select a Steinway grand piano at the factory. The same week, he received a master's degree from the Mannes School of Music in New York City.

"(The piano) is a dream for pianists," he said. "It means I will never have to worry about not having one when I get an apartment or studio."

To even advance to the national championship, Brandwein had to win the state music competition, which was earlier this year in Lawrence, and the regional competition, which was in Boulder, Colo., where Brandwein completed his undergraduate studies.

"It could not have worked out better," he said. "I was in familiar surroundings and felt very comfortable."

From there, the home field advantages continued for him when he competed against other regional winners in a day-long competition in Kansas City, where he took home the highest honor.

"It was thrilling to be able to play in Kansas City," he said. "I had a lot of support from music teachers who had watched me grow up and play."

Brandwein's experiences with the piano began at age 4, when his mother became his first music teacher. He promptly won his first competition that year and went on to perform solo with the Kansas City Philharmonia at the age of seven. Since that time, he has performed in Italy, Germany and France.

He will return to France this summer to be a part of a month-long festival and session that will afford him many more opportunities to play in front of new audiences.

In the near future, Brandwein plans to return to the Mannes school to study music for an additional two years. Ultimately, he hopes to be a chamber musician and provide private music lessons.

"I have aspirations to be a chamber musician," he said. "But I will be doing a mix of things to support myself as a musician."

Although Brandwein has enjoyed considerable success already as a musician, his father admits that the only drawback is that it has become difficult to keep track of all of his son's honors.

"He has done so much that it is hard to sum it all up," Joseph Brandwein said. "He really is a prodigy."