Taksh Gupta of West Windsor recently won the gold prize in the Golden Key Music Competition and will be performing at Carnegie Hall on May 31. For Gupta, a first grade student at Dutch Neck School, this will be his second performance on the grand stage. Gupta won the gold prize at the NJMTA competition last year and won the silver prize at IMPACT competition at Rutgers. Last May he played at Carnegie Hall after winning the Young Pianist Competition of New Jersey (The News, May 24, 2013).
His parents, Nitin Gupta and Srishti Gupta, were born, raised, and educated in India. They moved to the United States in 2002 and to the West Windsor area three years ago. Nitin works in the financial services technology industry. Srishti leads the digital group at a market research firm.
Taksh has been helping his younger brother, Parth, 4, on the piano. “He helps his bother practice and shows him how to play with rounded fingers and correct posture,” says his mother.
Other than piano, he plays soccer and tennis. He also enjoys problem solving and math and recently participated in the JEI math olympiad.
“Neither of us plays music, which makes Taksh’s progress even more remarkable,” said Nitin in 2013. “We believe that Taksh has his musical genes from his grandmother, who used to sing and play. (She died before Taksh was born). Taksh is also very attached to his maternal side grandparents who have shown him the importance of hard work and perseverance.”
Taksh started playing about three years ago on a keyboard given to him by his uncle. “Taksh enjoys a wide variety of music though his favorite pieces are fast and energetic,” says Nitin. “His teacher insisted that we buy a piano because that is where he will learn to play with the right technique and dynamics.”
Taksh studies with Todd Simmons and Ingrid Clarfield and spends 60 to 90 minutes every day practicing the piano with his mother. “We had been a little skeptical about buying a piano but now we know we made the right decision,” said Nitin in 2013.
