Accountant Nicole said: 'Before the media approached me I thought she was just one of the normal students. Eventually, she started attending in-person lessons with Felicia in Greenwich, Connecticut, who noticed her talent and urged her to enter competitions. The little musician picked up more in six months than most do in a year's worth of lessons, quickly learned to read sheet music and sight read classical pieces. The mum started teaching her then three-year-old a little bit herself, but enlisted the help of online lessons from Felicia Feng Zhang of All Talent Academy.

'She tried to play around, but it wasn't really playing the piano, just playing with the piano,' she said. Nicole, from Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA, said: 'She doesn't know much to be honest - I tell her 'yeah baby you won the prize' and she was like 'ok, can we go to Disney store now?'' A pianist herself, Nicole wanted her only daughter to pick up the instrument, and took the opportunity to introduce her to it while under lockdown last year to keep her entertained. While mum Nicole Sun, 32, is sad for her daughter, she knows that her priorities at the moment lie elsewhere. Sadly, all performers are currently required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and pre-schooler Brigitte is too young to get hers so was forced to pull out. At the age of three, Brigitte Xie had become the youngest ever winner of a music competition and landed a spot to play the piano at the prestigious venue. A four-year-old piano prodigy can't perform at Carnegie Hall - because she's too young to get her COVID vaccine.

4 year old piano prodigy