Daniel Clarke Bouchard is just back from an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where the 14-year-old wowed the American talk-show host and her studio audience with piano skills that are well beyond his years.
“It was such a great experience. It was amazing. I kind of — for the first time ever maybe — got a 0.01 per cent feeling of nervousness,” Clarke Bouchard told CBC.
Clarke Bouchard appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Monday, and played an original piece of jazz music — a boogie woogie — that he composed himself.
“Ellen is really nice and I really had a great interview. It was so much fun to be in front of the people because I love performing,” Clarke Bouchard said, adding that his musical roots lie in classical music.
“I’m always gonna be a classical musician. It’s where I started, it’s how I started to love music,” he said.
“And I’m wearing a bow tie. So there you go, it confirms it — I’m playing classical.”
Clarke Bouchard started playing the piano at the age of five. Since then, he’s played with renowned Canadian jazz pianist Oscar Peterson and performed at the prestigious Carnegie Hall concert venue in New York City.
While on the show, Clarke Bouchard told Ellen he is a huge hockey fan, and cheers for the Los Angeles Kings.
Ellen surprised him by bringing out Kings' goalie Jonathan Quick.
The piano prodigy and young hockey player said four things landed him on the Ellen show.
“A tweet, an email, luck and chance. It was the first time I ever tweeted anything so I guess it was quite the tweet to send out for the first time.”
He followed up with an email — and waited three months for a reply.
“I was so rejoiced when she emailed. I was just so happy,” he said.
Clarke Bouchard said between all his concerts, he’d also like to get into acting, and maybe even be an astronaut one day.
"Being the first pianist on the moon is always something I've wanted to accomplish ... I keep myself grounded and I do the best I can.”
Watch his performance on Ellen here: