We often don’t think about the “background music” of our lives. You may not even notice that when the television is on, when you’re shopping in a store, waiting on the phone, or even pumping gas, there is music playing in the background. We don’t get a choice of what we hear in these moments, but it fills much of what we hear on a daily basis.
If you’re creative, or if you have a favorite song for each situation you find yourself in, then you may even have that particular tune as your background score. Of course, this one would be playing in your head!
If we’re lucky, we enjoy some of the other music, the one everyone can listen to. It’s lovely to walk into a place like a department store and hear an actual musician playing. The David Jones department store in Melbourne, Australia regularly employs a piano player to “entertain” shoppers. Instead of canned music playing through tinny speakers, a person sits at a real piano and plays — it creates a pleasant environment for everyone in the store.
One day, the man who was hired to play the piano noticed a familiar face among the shoppers. He stopped playing and turned the piano over to her. At first, it seemed like a strange thing to do, but the pianist recognized the talented Natalie Trayling.
Natalie was first noticed in a Youtube video as a “street musician.” At 80-years-old, she has finally received recognition for her brilliant musical talent. She plays public spaces rather than huge concert halls, but she plays with so much emotion that everyone who hears her knows that they are experiencing something extraordinary.
One of the most astounding things about Natalie is how she brings music to life. Many pianists play memorized compositions or sheet music, but Natalie plays the music that she hears in her heart. In the moment, it flows out of her and onto the keys. It’s part of what makes her performances so beautiful. You can just see how passionate she is about her song and art. There is no sheet music in front of her, she’s playing what she has memorized and what is close to her heart. That’s the raw talent of a real musician!
It’s not every day that you can walk into a store and hear this talent live.
Watch the video below as she brings joy to everyone in the department store.
