- Our next guest is a piano prodigy,
a world champion in chess and as of today, 10 years old.
From New Jersey, please welcome the very talented
Harmony Zhu. Happy birthday!
- Thank you so much, Ellen.
I'm so happy to spend it with you.
[cheers and applause]
- Well, I'm happy that you're spending it with me, too.
10 years old! That's a big number.
- [giggles] - You're double digits now.
- Yeah. - Anything special?
Do you feel older?
- Not yet, no. - No, not yet.
You always-- you're very smart, though,
so you've probably been 10 years old since you were 4 years old.
[laughter] Right?
So now you're 10, so now you're 20.
I think you're way ahead of everybody.
'Cause you just won another competition
since you were here last, right?
- Yeah. - What did you win?
- I won the grand prize and the highest score in history
of an international Chopin competition.
And I was also the youngest winner in history,
and my score was 99.8.
audience: Wow. - Aw, too bad
you didn't get any higher, huh? [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
And you're a chess champion as well,
and I heard you were invited to play chess with somebody.
- Yeah, and so that's the--
that's why I was invited to Poland, to perform,
and I was invited to Poland to perform several concerts there,
and then, lots of people were lining up for my autograph,
and to take photos with me.
- I bet. - And then, most people
gave me their chess score books for me to sign on,
but some people actually gave me their arms,
and then I tried to press harder than usual
so that when they took a bath it wouldn't wash off immediately.
[audience laughter]
- Wow. [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
So you got a new pet since you were here last, too.
- Yeah, it's a parakeet, and her name is Mozart.
- Uh huh. - But I like to call her Momo.
- Okay, and why did you call her Mozart?
- Because Mozart is a-- like, his music
is always very cheerful and upbeat and happy,
and my parakeet is very happy all the time,
and also she likes to improvise her own songs,
which are always very happy,
and she--um, so that's why I decided Mozart
would be the perfect name for her.
- And what color is she?
- She's dark blue, light blue, and white.
- Aw, beautiful. All right.
So I'm not going to invite you here and not ask you to play,
so what are you playing today?
- I'm going to be playing part of a Rachmaninoff etude,
and Rachmaninoff is one of my favorite composers, also.
- Okay, wonderful, all right. We'll, uh--
[cheers and applause]
[playing piano]
[cheers and applause]
That was beautiful! - Thank you, Ellen!
- Very, very beautiful.
Okay, so I have a gift for you. - Oh, thank you.
- Okay, it's your birthday, and I got you a gift.
It's actually for Mozart, but it's for you and Mozart.
And so when Mozart wants to land and play
and have its own little area to play piano--
- Wow! So Momo can actually hop onto this?
- Exactly, Mozart can play the piano.
- It's like his dollhouse?' - Yes.
- And it actually has a cat? - Yeah, Mozart has the cat,
and everything it wants. - Wow!