Yellowknife (Oct 20/06) - And they say evolution takes millions of years.

A night of musical growth and development greeted audience members at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre this week, as four gifted young pianists proved just how far they've come in the last year.

Ten-year-old Trisa Ngo works though a Beethoven piece, aided by instructor Ardith Dean (not pictured), during the NACC Classical Lunches Evening Concert at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre. - Adam Johnson/NNSL photo

The Tuesday night show was a celebration of NACC's Classical Lunches, a series of afternoon performances that gave young musicians a chance to show off their skills on the NACC stage.

NACC executive director Ben Nind said the program, which ran last year, was designed "to bring young classical musicians forwards within the Northern musical community."

The night started with 10-year-old Trisa Ngo, performing for the first time on the NACC stage. She skilfully moved her way from Beethoven's Sonatina in F Major to Greig's "Waltz," with the encouragement of instructor and master of ceremonies Ardith Dean, who sat onstage with her for the first piece. She was followed by Lisa Ngo, 12, who performed pieces from Kabalevsky and Soeur Sourire in her second performance at NACC.

Cherryl Li, 11, gave the less classically-inclined members of the audience (reporters included) a treat with Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer," best known as the ragtime theme from The Sting.

With each pianist, performances became more nuanced and confident, a trend that culminated in 14-year-old Johnathan Raine, who approached the keys like a man twice his age for a series of pieces from Chopin, Beethoven and others.

"They really worked hard for that," Dean said of her students afterwards. It just warms the heart."

When the performances concluded, Dean and the students returned to present Nind with a new piano bench, as a token of their thanks.

"I'm sorry we didn't have enough money to get you a new piano," she said with a laugh.

"So you'll have to just accept the bench."

The show closed with a special performance from COSY (Classics on Stage Yellowknife), closed out the night with a series of special performances from Deanna Roos, Anita Kuzma and Mariam Paquin.Afterwards, Nind said NACC had plans to continue the program.

"The response last year was unbelievable," Nind said.

"For the three free concerts, our average attendance was 100 individuals for a 40-minute lunchtime concert."

Dean said she was excited to see how the program would develop in the future.

"It's wonderful for these kids to be onstage. Who knows the possibilities?"

"It's going to go places, and it's wonderful."