One day, long ago, I was a teenager living in Lima, Perú (where I was born), I was studying at the Conservatory, and my dream was to become a concert pianist.

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I was heading towards the bus stop, on my way to the National Conservatory, where I studied.

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When I arrived at the bus stop, I spotted a young boy sitting on the pavement next to it. He was just one of the thousands of homeless boys living on the streets.

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But something caught my attention: he was writing down something on a piece of paper. That was already unusual since most boys like him don´t even know how to read or write.

 

He seemed to be abstracted from this world, and I imagined that he wanted to express his feelings through his writing, even if he probably didn´t know how to write...

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This left a long-lasting impression on me.

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Actually, it left such an impression that his image has been glued to my mind ever since.

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Some 10 years later, I was living in Europe and my dream of becoming a concert artist was fulfilled.

 

I remembered him one of those days and I wrote a small piano piece inspired by him. I titled it "Ballad for a Boy".

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In this piece, I imagined the voice of a young boy who plays and expresses himself through music. His mind is innocent, although that is an idealization since this young boy living on the streets had probably lost much of his innocence already...

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And today, some 25 years after seeing that boy, I decided that I want to share this piece with you.

 

It´s a simple piece but its meaning gives it so much profoundness that it´s impossible for me not to get emotional when listening to it.

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You can listen to a fragment of it here: