Prodigy

The one thing wrong with Margaret Rosezarian Harris was that she sometimes couldn't reach the right notes--but she would grow. And her appreciative audience thought that her phrasing, rhythm and pedaling (on extended pedals) were already surprisingly adept for a three-year-old.

Dressed in spotless white satin, with a pink ribbon in her curly black hair, Margaret made her debut as a concert pianist last week in Chicago's Carey Temple (African Methodist Episcopal). She gave the audience a curtsy, saw that her doll Rosezarian was seated on a chair beside the grand piano, then clambered up on the bench and began a Bach minuet. After that and a selection from Mozart's Magic Flute, her teacher had to ask the audience to hold their applause until the first part of the recital was over. Altogether, Margaret played 14 pieces, including Schubert's Ave Maria and Brahms's Cradle Song.

Nursery Rhymes. After the concert, in the Harris' neat, flower-print-curtained apartment in Chicago's South Side Negro district, Margaret couldn't decide what to do next. She tried playing ball with her father, a railroad machinist; then she went to work on some gum, and showed reporters her dolls. Said she, eyes wide: "There were an awful lot of people there, and at first I was afraid. But I just went over to my piano, and then I wasn't afraid any more." How did it feel when the audience clapped? "Felt good--real good."

Said Margaret's mother: "I prayed very hard before she came that she would have an extra amount of wisdom, and it's really there. . . . When I used to sing nursery rhymes to her, she would try to pick out the notes on the piano. Then on St. Patrick's Day last year, she crawled up on the piano bench and played Mary Had a Little Lamb all the way through. I phoned a couple of our friends so they could hear it."

Cats & Dogs. Margaret, who will be four this month, started taking lessons last fall and has already learned 18 pieces. Being a little girl, she never sits still very long, so her teacher gives her only 20-minute lessons. Margaret can now read music, but can only pick words like "cat" and "dog" out of her nursery books. (Still, she likes to make a try at reading newspaper headlines, and last week told her mother, "Here's Bilbo on the paper.")

She practices for a half or three-quarters of an hour twice a day, but her mother says, "There's nobody here to get upset over it if she doesn't keep any certain schedule. We want her to grow up like a little girl." Says Margaret: "Sure, I have fun when I practice. I always hope that if I keep practicing, I won't have to take a nap. Don't like naps."

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