Michael Seibt, 15, has always had a passion for music; however, the discovery for his talent came to fruition later in life compared to his peers. The discovery of his talent was a shock and awe factor when his initial introduction to reading music and basic tempo was followed 2 days later with him playing Bach’s Minuet in G flawlessly. Michael has now been playing piano for 3 years, but has only taken a rigorous approach since October 2014 under the direction of Dr. Cassie Taylor from the University of Utah. During his 8 months of instruction with Dr. Taylor, Michael has made tremendous progress and has developed an appreciation of not only the musicality portion of piano, but he has also developed a level of respect for several composer’s style and history. This has recently inspired him to compose music of his own. Although his true aspiration is to become a Professional Concert Pianist, his desire and goal of composing are not out of reach. He once stated, “There are millions of people that can play concertos, but there are only a few that can compose them.”
Michael was diagnosed with autism at the age of 3. Doctors gave little hope that he would ever be verbal and that his mental capacity would be equivalent and limited to the age of 5 year old, at best. Through rigorous therapy, Michael developed skills of tenacity, determination, and learning that nothing is impossible. Because of these attributes that he refined at such a young age, Michael has succeeded to being not only mainstreamed into typical classrooms with his peers, but maintains stellar grades in various accelerated and honors classes through junior high and high school.
Additionally, Michael loves to be challenged in numerous ways. He has achieved running for the junior varsity cross country team as a freshman in high school, competes and participates in several chess clubs, has surpassed students his own age in learning Spanish at an accelerated pace, and surprised his mother by teaching himself some Russian as well.
In his spare time, Michael also enjoys the outdoors, such as camping, hiking, trail running, running organized 5K’s, mountain biking, snowboarding, basketball, ping pong, and tennis. He also enjoys spending time with his family and values his alone time just as much, so he can research the internet for inspiration of which piano piece to learn next.
Michael inspires many through his true belief that, “Everyone has the same amount of skill and talent. It’s just the matter of how you apply that skill and talent in what you are interested in that makes the difference.” This true belief of Michael’s is the very reason he has essentially mastered the ability speak, learn, achieve, and overcome. Because of this, Michael has become a true musician, and rejoices in submitting for his very first piano solo competition through ENKOR 2015.
