Nauen says Hiroto Yamamoto has a natural musical gift that is greater than her own. Provided to China Daily

For the first time, Maria Nauen has a student whose natural musical gift is greater than her own.

"The boy is extremely talented - he has amazing ears," she says of 12-year-old prodigy, Hiroto Yamamoto.

"He will be a big musician with a big M."

Recently, Nauer took him to compete in an international competition being held in her hometown of Vladivostok, Russia.

Preparing for that recital, the two decided to take a risk. Instead of playing a well-known piece, they decided he would perform a work no jury had ever heard before. Nauer's friend Brent Parker, a New Zealand-born composer and pianist who lived in Beijing for 20 months, had heard her conduct Hiroto at a concert in the German embassy school. Inspired by the boy's virtuosity, Parker wrote a violin concerto for him, and Nauer was eager to take that music to Vladivostok.

She called a competition official to ask permission, and was asked to send a recording of the piece.

"How can we?" she remembers asking. "It has never been played."

However, she made a short, raw "lesson recording" and sent it. And then waited. It took a month before the official finally called her back. Not all of the judges were happy, but they decided to approve it, he told her, adding the cautionary note that not all of the audience would find the piece easy to like.

Nauen concedes that it's difficult to impress people with something new.