9-Year-Old Cello Master Playing Carnegie Hall

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A fifth-grader has taken his talents to Carnegie Hall after mastering the cello.

CBS2's Cindy Hsu reported that 9-year-old Shaw Edwards of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, has already played in the hallowed hall three times.

Shaw started his musical career on the piano.

"He just started when he was 2 or 3," said Timothy Edwards, Shaw's father. "He always moved to music. He would come over to the piano."

When Shaw was 5, he visited Brooklyn College Conservatory.

"They shoved a violin in his hand, and they shoved a cello in his hand, and they said, 'Which one do you like?'" Edwards said.

Shaw chose the cello and started lessons, and while he's rather shy and soft spoken, he loves touching people through music.

"I like performing, making people smile, making them feel happy," Shaw said.

People can see videos of Shaw performing on YouTube. His favorite composer is Bach, and he has no problem memorizing pages and pages of music.

"It's not really that hard. Once I pretty much see it, I memorize it, and I just play it over and over again," Shaw said.

Shaw practices the cello two hours every day and the piano 30 minutes a day, but he's very well-rounded – somehow he finds time to play basketball and win lots of medals in running.

"You know, most places if someone's practicing really loudly, they get angry," Shaw said, but they don't in his building. "They say, 'Great job, hope you play again.'"

Shaw dreams of attending a school like Julliard, then performing all over the world.

Shaw will be performing on Sunday in Red Hook at the Brooklyn Waterfront Arts Coalition.