Piano prodigy, 10, set to become Vegas’ youngest headliner with Hilton show

Six feet away from a piano, he's a regular kid, stomping around the pattern outlines of colorful carpet because "I'm trying to get dizzy."

Sit him back down at the piano and he makes you dizzy.

It's easier to comprehend 10-year-old piano prodigy Ethan Bortnick in the YouTube era. But what really drives home that this is no magic trick is watching the game he plays with his father, Gene, the goal being to stump the one-boy jukebox.

Gene calls 'em out, Ethan plays them. He shifts from Chopin to Mozart, before his dad yells, "Gloria Gaynor." In a heartbeat he's playing -- and singing along -- to "I Will Survive."

Then an equally abrupt switch to Beethoven's "Fur Elise" sonata, before Dad hits the invisible switch again, asking for the Louis Armstrong chestnut, "What a Wonderful World."

"I see trees ..." Ethan sings.

" 'Wonderful World' at the end!" Dad interrupts.

A momentary pause. "Ah, did I get you?"

Nope, he catches right up.

"With Louis Armstrong's hoarse voice."

"And I think to myself ..." he complies.

"And his face."

It's the attempt to do the face that makes you think the kid is ready for Vegas.

This grizzled veteran of several Oprah Winfrey and Jay Leno shows, not to mention his own PBS special, is now being touted as Las Vegas' youngest headliner for his performances at the Las Vegas Hilton today and Saturday.

The set list will be adjusted accordingly. Ethan's ode to Sinatra will be "You Make Me Feel So Young," not "My Way," because the latter is "not humble."

"Sometimes you have to change the words because they're not appropriate for me," he says. For "Viva Las Vegas," a phrase about "a whole lot of women waitin' out there" will become "awesome people."

You mean you haven't loved and lost like Frank has?

"What does that mean?" He gives his dad a perplexed look.

"It's in a few more years," his dad assures.

Gene is trying to keep Ethan's future open to whatever direction his muse leads. He works with two piano teachers, but they try not to go too far overboard on classical technique lest that stifle his creative, songwriting impulses.

Ethan has written songs such as "Arctic Jazz," which is "about a manatee who went all the way from Florida (where the Bortnicks reside) to Antarctica to have a jazz party."

"I wrote this song because if you keep trying and trying, anything is possible," he adds.

At this point, it's easiest to describe Ethan as a sponge. David Foster told him to listen to jazz legend Bill Evans, and now he can copy those moody tones. But he also digs Little Richard. At this point, the only things he doesn't like are heavy metal and loud noises; they always leave before fireworks time at Disney World.

Psychologists have asked Gene if he would submit Ethan to a brain MRI in search of a scientific explanation for his talent. "He's having so much fun, why try to figure it out? I don't see any reason, if he's having fun."

It started when Ethan was 3. "I was begging my parents for piano lessons, and they kept saying I was still in diapers," he explains. "You know those 'Baby Einstein' CDs? I kept listening to them and listening to them, and on a little toy keyboard I just started playing what I heard.

"And then my parents got me piano lessons."

The teacher, Gene adds, was most impressed by Ethan's ability to sit at the piano bench for an hour without squirming. That continues today. "I have to pull him off sometimes. A lot of times," Gene says, drawing a laugh from his son.

Ethan turned down a request to audition for "America's Got Talent." He retired from competition at age 6, after seeing a Tiger Mom chew out a second-place winner he had bested. "There was no point in it, too," Ethan points out.

Good point, when you share management with Celine Dion, and when Elton John, Ben Folds and Greg Phillinganes -- musical director of Cirque du Soleil's upcoming Michael Jackson tribute -- are all in your circle of fans and contacts.

And Ethan seems to be developing a Vegas-worthy stage banter, unwittingly channeling the late comic pianist Victor Borge (neither father nor son were familiar until someone else pointed out the similarity). It turns out Borge died three hours before Ethan was born, on Dec. 23, 2000.

Who can explain all this? Where will it go? Who knows? But there is time to find out. This youngest Vegas headliner could pass Elvis Presley's seven-year longevity at the Hilton before he is out of high school.

Of course, his dad is quick to add, if he ever said he wanted to quit, that would be fine, too. "As long as we see that spark in his eye that he's having fun, we'll protect that."

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288.