Piano-Playing Is Teen's Forté Despite Being Born Without Hands

Like Beethoven, Stevie Wonder or Ray Charles, one teen found the key to playing the piano, despite a disability.

Alexei Romanov, a 15-year-old from Russia, was born without hands. Inspired by the works of Mozart and Vivaldi, he decided two years ago to learn how to play the piano. In that short time he has risen to Internet fame, played for a respected orchestra and has been featured on TV, Russia Beyond the Headlines reports.

Two years ago, Alexei was adopted. His adoptive parents immediately noticed his creative side and bought him a synthesizer. Alexei’s music teacher, at a boarding school for children with disabilities in Kazan, Russia, helped him learn how to play music -- teaching him melodies from movies like "Titanic."

He also got a little help from his friends.

“My friends shared music with me and if I liked something, I would find the notes and try to understand it myself. If I didn’t understand something then teachers would help me,” he told Ruptly TV, according to a translation provided by The Independent.

In February, Alexei performed with Kazan’s La Primavera chamber orchestra. The performance led to an invitation to join a music school in Moscow.

A video of him playing "River Flows in You" was also uploaded to YouTube in February and went viral, receiving almost 300,000 views.

In March, he was invited to perform at "Guests from Tomorrow" a TV project, in which he performed his trademark tune, "River Flows in You," once again.

"During the concert with the orchestra I was shaking from the tension. I can't even remember what was happening,” Alexei told Russia Beyond The Headlines. “But there was nothing I could do: I walked onto the stage, sat down and started playing. I felt my knees shaking. Then I realized that I was doing well -- it's as if the melody started flowing by itself. And so I calmed down.”