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This is Nora's photo from her Facebook page
By now many people are acquainted with the uniquely talented Nora, the piano-playing cat of Pennsylvania. In fact, in the two years since videos of her purrformances began appearing on YouTube she has garnered over 20 million hits.
Nora’s celebrity has continued to accelerate, and the cat now finds herself with several books in the marketplace, and a 2010 calendar with a music chip is on the way. You can also download ring tones of her playing the piano.
But Nora truly made history when a Lithuanian conductor named Mindaugas Piecaitis composed his very first piece of orchestral music—for her. The four-minute long CATcerto was created to synchronize with a video clip of Nora at the keyboard. Piecaitis conducted the world premiere of his CATcerto, with eighteen members of the Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra and Nora as soloist via video screen, in front of a packed house at the Klaipeda Concert Hall in Klaipeda, Lithuania on June 5, 2009.
The piece received thunderous applause and a standing ovation. In addition, it has been well reviewed in places like www. pianoworld.com. All of which has undoubtedly made Nora purr with pleasure. As she recently told a reporter from Music In, an Italian magazine, Nora considers herself a classical musician who takes her work very seriously, practicing the hard parts over and over.
Nora has been interviewed by numerous other print, online, and TV reporters around the globe. But she wasn’t always in the spotlight. She had her humble beginnings as a shelter cat, and caught the attention of Betsy Alexander and her husband Burnell, who were out buying cat food for their other five cats.
After Nora joined the family, one day, Betsy (a piano teacher) and Burnell heard someone playing the piano. It was Nora, who was pleased to continue exploring her musical talents to the delight of Betsy, Burnell, and now, her millions of fans around the world.
What better example can there be than Nora’s that, when you adopt a cat from a shelter, you and your new friend-for-life will make beautiful music together?! Check out the Animal Care and Control of New York City website to see if there’s someone with whom you feel in tune.
And, in the meantime, enjoy Nora’s CATcerto!
Comments
Now this just proves that cats truly are smarter than dogs and most humans. And while her piano playing talents impresssed me, what I thought was even more outstanding was that she can speak and apparently is a linquist as she responded to interviewers both in the US. and in Italy. OMG
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