“I could be anywhere else, but I teach at a Catholic school because there is nothing more powerful than praising God with song, and I love to have the kids value that, so that in the future we have adults who worship with song and that they feel this is part of their musical heritage in the Church.”Īnthony used Rowe’s second-hand piano for many months until he realized it was hampering his technique and advancement. Music is valuable for every Catholic school student, according to Rowe. “Later he on he went to Archbishop McCarthy High School and played some musicals with us and played the score and practically took charge.” “He discovered this gift and we at the school took the opportunity to let him play for our choir and he became our accompanist and played in the school band. “He was a very well behaved, very courteous and a great kid,” Rowe said. Even a piano tuner couldn’t get it to stay in tune. Mark the Evangelist School, kept had a spare piano which was old, out of tune, dirty and not functioning properly.
“I had a mediocre keyboard that I was practicing on at home but it was not a real piano with all 88 keys the way that the keys felt was not natural so what I had been practicing on for a year and a half was not very good for my technique,” he said. The young pianist was still playing on an inexpensive keyboard when teachers recommended a more serious approach. He was a 2012 Pinnacle Award winner at McCarthy High. At the same time, the youngster held up an exceptional academic performance that has not wavered, according to his family. Things moved along fairly quickly from there as Anthony met other musicians and teachers, each of whom played a supporting role in his musical education. “I love to play the piano and to play music.” “I ran with it and excelled very much with the music,” he said. Injection is the most common method of administering insulin although other methods are insulin pumps and inhaled insulin.īut Anthony’s love of music and a solid prayer life propelled his determination to work through his health challenges. Mark School in Southwest Ranches and is now a sophomore at Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School next door.Managing Type 1 diabetes requires significant changes to lifestyle and routine, and presents affected youngsters and their families with real hardships and the need for close monitoring. The condition must be managed indefinitely and is usually fatal unless treated with insulin. Piano prodigy Anthony Coniglio, 16, took up learning music and playing the piano at the age of 9, as a way of dealing with a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. “It was not a high level music school but playing the piano helped me express my emotions and the anger I had from the diabetes,” he said. “When I got diagnosed with diabetes at nine years of age I was very frustrated and to help me express my emotions my parents enrolled me in a music school,” said the current sophomore at Archbishop Edward McCarthy High School and Florida Virtual School, a distance learning program which enables him to spend more time on his musical studies. It came as a response to a life-altering and unwelcomed diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. Mark the Evangelist Catholic School in Southwest Ranches, that with the encouragement of his parents and teachers, Anthony started reading music and learning to play the piano. The twist is that the youngster from Davie is seen playing the piano in the upside-down and seemingly impossible posture that he and film audiences saw in the 1984 movie, “Amadeus,” about the life of Mozart.īut it was only four years earlier, while a student at St. 2 in C minor - during a show at the Steinway Piano Gallery Concert Hall in Coral Gables. ADOM :: Piano prodigy credits rosary devotion, Catholic educationĭAVIE | In a 2011 YouTube video that he posted at the age of 14, Anthony Coniglio plays an “after-concert treat” - a prelude from Bach's Prelude and Fugue No.