Max plays his composition at EJOC in London - February 2014

Listen to Max Blansjaar (10 years old) perform his piano composition 'The Cat and the Butterfly'. This was the first time that a European Junior Original Concert had been held in the UK.

He was joined by two other young composers from the UK and other young composers from France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

Here is Max’s account:

“I enjoyed EJOC very much. The hotel was very nice and our room was on the eighth floor with a great view.

We arrived on Thursday evening by bus and then we had something to eat. After that I was tired, so I went upstairs and fell asleep.

The next morning I didn’t have a rehearsal until eleven o’clock with the choir, so I had a lot of time to have breakfast. After the choir rehearsal, I had the afternoon off to go out into London. We went to the British Museum for a while and then to a café. At about 8 in the evening I had to go back to the hotel for my rehearsal. It went well.

On Saturday I hardly had time to go anywhere; I had rehearsals for the whole day. I had to practise the way I bowed and the way I walked on and off the stage.

The concert was very exciting. I was second. When I walked onto the stage I wasn’t really nervous; we had rehearsed so many times it felt like another rehearsal. After I’d played I bowed and went back to join the other performers. I had to go down a lot of stairs but after that we didn’t have to be as quiet because the audience couldn’t hear us anyway.

There were 10 other performers, and after the concert everyone handed out presents from their country or city. I got 10 presents from all over Europe and I gave everyone an Oxford piggy bank. The youngest performer was six and the youngest was 14. Including me, there were three performers from the UK.

I really enjoyed composing my piece and being able to perform it in London. What an experience Yamaha has given me!”