Meet the once nearly deaf cello player turned music prodigy
HOUSTON, Texas -- Some people consider him a music prodigy. A high school senior is being courted by some of the top music schools in the country.
At 18, Kyle Victor doesn't just play the cello, he feels it.
"The moment I played a note, that was it. I was completely into cello, and that's all I want to do," said Kyle.
Kyle fell in love with the cello when he was just 10 years old. His family says he was obsessed with it and begged his mom to allow him to play the instrument in school. The single mother had one rule.
"I said, 'Now you know we don't quit anything. And if you start this, you are going to do your best and be the best in this. You are going to be the best cellist there is,'" said Colette Martin.
Kyle practiced every day. In middle school, he excelled far beyond the other students. His cello was his best friend since he had trouble making friends in school.
"They would call me robot, or ear boy, where they could just harass me about being different from everyone else," said Kyle.
Kyle could barely hear without his hearing aids. At three years old, doctors found a tumor in his left ear. They found constant fluid built up in his right ear.
Kyle says he couldn't hear well at all. He remembers the many surgeries as a kid and the pain behind the scars that are visible behind his ears.
"I cried for a lot of them. And I would beg the doctors to not do it," said Kyle.
The surgeries worked. In high school, he worked even harder. He's now considered one of the state's top players.
Recently, Kyle won the Houston Youth Symphony Concerto competition. He found out just weeks ago that five of the nation's top music conservatories accepted him into their programs. He said when he found out, he ran around the halls of Klein High School.
"I always say we did this. I say we did this. It's an amazing feeling. It's exciting," said Martin.
"Getting the opportunity to play my instrument means the world to me, but to be able to go to a world-known university where I can keep expanding my skills and become better, that would be everything to me," Kyle said.
Kyle revealed live on ABC11's sister station ABC13 that he will be attending the Peabody Conservatory at John's Hopkins University in Maryland. It's the oldest conservatory in the United States.
WATCH: Kyle's big college reveal
