Enough talent?

[Makka]

Since I started playing 13 months ago, I've learned Moonlight sonata, Uematsu's Tina and Joplin's The Entertainer.

Is this enough talent to become a concert pianist?

[keys]

How old are you? It's not so much about talent as it is about working really hard and paying attention to detail.

[xvimbi]

How did you do in the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata?

In any case, nobody can answer this question without hearing and seeing you play. You need to ask a qualified person. What does your teacher say?

[thierry13]

If you've done the three movements of the moonlight sonata, and that you play them extremly well, you will have to work very hard to be a concert pianist. If you've played only the easy first movement, you'll have to dedicate all your time to piano to do so. It depends on your age too.

[lostinidlewonder]

Since I started playing 13 months ago, I've learned Moonlight sonata, Uematsu's Tina and Joplin's The Entertainer.

Is this enough talent to become a concert pianist?

ahaha!

If you did learn the Beethoven that still leaves a huge amount of music and form of the piano left unrevealed. You need to do Chopin Etudes, Liszt Etudes, Debussy, get your hands on Ravel. Keep Uematsu and Joplin away with a stick for now.

Get a two 45 minutes program organised and then start doing smaller private concerts first about 100 people. You don't want to crash and burn.

[robo1001]

If you've done the three movements of the moonlight sonata, and that you play them extremly well, you will have to work very hard to be a concert pianist.

I seriously doubt that Makka has been able to learn all 3 movements of the Moonlight Sonata and other stuff as well in the first 13 months of playing and if Makka has learnt all 3 movements, then good on ya, and you'd definantly be on your way to becoming a concert pianist, providing you're still quite young.  I've been playing for 11 years and can just about play all 3 movements of the Moonlight Sonata.

[Makka]

In retrospect, my question seems oddly posed... I'll explain a little more: I'm currently 17 and in secondary school, and right now I'm seriously considering a career in this area.

School hours take up 99% of my time and thus I don't have much time to practise. I usually practise obsessively (six/seven hour days) when I'm on any of my holidays.

I do genuinely love classical music - I'd like nothing more than to be a pianist by trade, but to do so would require a very dangerous leap into an area which I have only started to take a serious interest in quite recently.

My teacher has (and repeatedly does) said that I do have talent - but we haven't discussed concert talent...

Oh, and no - I didn't do the last two movements from Beethoven's Moonlight sonata (I don't have the arrogance to properly attempt the last movement), although I did teach the first movement to myself when I knew little more than Middle C. Right now, I'm working on Chopin's E Flat Major Nocturne (Op.9, No.2) and Prokofiev's Montagues and Capulets (Op.75). (Which are proving to be quite testing)

You all seem very friendly here. Thanks for the replies.

[faulty_damper]

Since I started playing 13 months ago, I've learned Moonlight sonata, Uematsu's Tina and Joplin's The Entertainer.

Is this enough talent to become a concert pianist?

Sounds like the repetory I started with during my first year of self-study, except I have no idea who Uematsu is.  Anyway, I wasn't content with just the first movement of the sonata so I started that on my own.  I haven't had much interest in learning the rest of it after the repeat so I have yet to complete it which is fine even though this was three years ago.

Next month, I will have been playing the piano for four years.  I auditioned for the music program at the University and was accepted this past January which was fantastic, even though I was so nervous and the audition did not go as I would have liked (forgot the last half of a piece, messed up the easiest part of a difficult movement of a sonata).

I am actually rather surprised I am in the music program because most of the other piano students have been playing since they were from 4 years of age, which is actually intimidating because they have far more experience and have skills such as sightreading that are far superior to mine.

Anyway, addressing your question directly about a carreer as a performing artist: With the repetory you stated, and having never heard your technical ability, and more importantly, your musical ability, if a judgement were made, I would say not at this point.  You must have numerous qualities to be a performing artist and many of them are not related to actual performance (Do a search on attributes of a performing artist or something like it in these forums.)  Also know that most students in a conservatory or university with emphasis in classical performance do not become performers, which reminds me of a joke in a thread :

What does a degree in music prepare you in a career for?


Unemployment. 

Sad... and yet humorous...

(I don't have the arrogance to properly attempt the last movement)

In my opinion, you must have much more than self-humility.  Arrogance has nothing to do with skill.  If you always color within the lines, you will never know the possibilities beyond those lines that someone else has drawn your you.  Becoming an artist means making your own lines, otherwise you will be just another 'paint-by-numbers' artist, which is fine as a hobby but not for the presentation to the mass audiences.

There is a book, Reflections from the Keyboard, by David Dubal.  In it, he interviews many concert pianists and they each provide their own insight about the keyboard and as concert pianists.  I recommend reading it - just start by choosing a pianist in the index that you are interested in, or has inspired you, or whatever and start with him or her.  But as with most career performers, don't take anything they say literally because sometimes they don't even know what they are talking about (aka: waxing lyrically).  But it is still a very interesting read and sometimes, they even make comments about other pianists interviewed in the book which adds another layer.  Read it, reflect on it, and most importantly reflect on yourself.