Taking a closer look, you might have found that the pianist was rather young. What was even more special was that the pianist apparently could not see anything. Yes, he was actually a sixteen-year-old blind musician who was leaving for Austria on November 10 to pursue advanced studies at a prestigious music college.

During a one-hour concert, Hsu Tse-cheng performed all kinds of songs, ranging from classical music to popular folk songs, to bid farewell and express his heartfelt gratitude to all the Tzu Chi members who had generously and kindly supported him. The lovely melodies warmed up every heart in the audience, and some people were even moved to tears when Tse-cheng played "I Love You, Mom" for his beloved mother.

Tse-cheng's father is a taxi driver and his mom a housewife who mindfully looks after her husband and two sons. When Tse-cheng was merely a baby, his father noticed that the pupils of his eyes did not seem to move properly. When they had their son's eyes examined by an ophthalmologist, the couple found out that Tse-cheng's retinas were chipping away for unknown reasons. That was a ruthless blow to the whole family.

An unexpected discovery three years later, however, brought a ray of sunshine into their dark, miserable minds. One day, Tse-cheng's granduncle gave him an electronic keyboard as a present. The bright child could accurately replay the tunes of any folk songs that his grandfather sang to him after listening to them just a couple of times. Cheered up by the boy's talent for music, his parents started encouraging him to learn to play piano under different teachers. "At least he can find a way to entertain himself," Mrs. Hsu told me later on.

The path for Tse-cheng in learning to be a good pianist has been full of setbacks and challenges. He must memorize every song by heart. The greatest difficulty for him to cope with is when his fingers need to jump from one key to another distant one because he cannot see them. This can only be alleviated with constant practice, although he still misses sometimes. However, his hard work finally paid off. Four years ago when he was twelve, his performance of a Taiwanese folk song, "The Dark Sky," won first place at the International Contest for Mentally-Physically Challenged Young Musicians held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

This gifted pianist is strong in character, but he is also wise enough to know how to live with disappointment and failure. He elaborated his "philosophy of the worst outcome" to me when I went to talk with him after the concert. "I never place any high expectations in a contest before I go for it. Instead, I always assume that I'll be the loser after the contest," explained Tse-cheng. "Then I'll be really happy if I do win." That sounds a little pessimistic and cynical at first, but it actually makes sense after you ponder deeply on it. What a wise young man!

We often say that when Heaven closes one door, it often opens another one. This saying seems to be appropriate in describing Tse-cheng's life. Behind his glorious performances on stage, there must be a lot of stress and grief buried in his mother's heart. "Your gifted son might have been a very common child had he been given good eyes with which to see," I said to Mrs. Hsu. "That's quite possible, but I would rather that he have a common life without so many hardships," she replied. I was deeply moved to hear her comment.

The young musician was also worried about his intensive studies in Austria, since he will have to study the difficult German language as well as his music courses. "I can't even speak English well, so how will I learn German well?" The road to success is full of challenges, but I believe a bright young man like Tse-cheng should be fine after he lives in that beautiful nation for a while. After all, he will study with the blessings of millions of Tzu Chi members.