A boy on top of the beat

On a Friday night in a suburb in Pretoria there are small children with earplugs standing right in front of the stage staring up at the lights and the smoke drifting from the stage.

You feel the rhythm and your heart beats against your chest. This is not just any type of rock show. This is a 10-year-old rocking it.

Stephan Rosenmayer has been exceptional from birth: since the doctor only gave him a 5% chance of survival after being born with under-developed lungs to the time he played his first Barnyard show.

His mother, Stephanie, remembers how he used to conduct Johann Strauss-music with chopsticks at the age of three. “It took us a while to realise every single move he made was exactly like the orchestra conductor on the DVD we watched,” she said.

The local hardware store was Stephan’s music store. “He would make music with nails and hammers and whatever he could find.” It is unclear where Stephan’s remarkable musical talent originates from, but his mother likes to believe it manifested in those first eight weeks in an incubator.

“His granddad suggested that we play music while he was in the ICU, to drown out the sounds of the hospital and that’s what we did,” she said.

By the age of four Stephan could tell his mom exactly which conductor he preferred and why. To this day he can still remember which dance goes with each song in the Nutcracker, after only seeing the classic once.

However, today his love is rock music to the great pleasure of his dad, Anton. “Sometimes I try to challenge him musically, but every time he surprises me,” said his father, a former drummer. He says Stephan can play 160 beats per second, which is faster than many professional drummers.

Stephanie laughs when she talks about Stephan’s tantrums as a toddler. “He use to throw tantrums in song. He would hum the intro to Smoke on the Water because he expresses himself through music,” she said.

Stephan says he loves the harmony and melody of music and says he feels “one” with it when he makes music. He added his favorite bands are Pink Floyd “because of their shows” and Bon Jovi “because of their good harmonising”.

Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing thunders from the speakers and everyone’s on their feet. Stephan looks up at the spotlight above his head while continuing to play. It is then that you see the 10-year-old boy easily distracted by flashing lights and a crowd whistling.

After finishing his first three songs, his dad hands him a squeezy bottle. His father is always only a few feet away, with an enormous smile on his face while he listens to some of his favorite bands being covered by his son.

“The most difficult pieces of music he will be able to play within two days. He hears sounds we don’t. He’ll ask ‘Dad, what is that sound?’ and then, far off, I can hear a flute playing. It is unbelievable,” Anton says.

Stephan’s piano teacher, Izelle Avenant, said he has a raw love for music. “He regularly gives me goose bumps,” she added.

A fellow musician, Colin Hea-ney has been a drummer for 35 years and performed with Stephan at his first Barnyard show. “He is an amazing talent. He blew me away when I first heard him play. I think he is a prodigy and I actually learn a lot from him,” he said.

Stephan’s dream? Playing before a rugby game at Loftus or playing “’till the ball drops” in New York City. “I want to rock the whole world,” he says.

His mother adds with a smile: “His dreams are enormous. He asked me whether, if he played an Andrew Lloyd Webber song, we could also have a chandelier drop on the stage.

“To be honest, we don’t know what his limits are. He exceeds them regularly.”

Stephan gets in the car with his parents after his show, but the sports bar is abuzz. “That dude was awesome,” says a 20-something guy with dreadlocks. Everyone agrees. Stephan is not a 10-year-old playing drums.

He is a musician; one they will happily pay to see.