KEYS TO SUCCESS - SCOTT MACINTYRE
by L. Gronemann

Carole MacIntyre had just returned home from a Mommy and Me class with her 3-year-old son, Scott MacIntyre.  They had spent part of the day singing Mary Had A Little Lamb in class.  It was a day like any other.  That was until MacIntyre walked up to their old upright piano in their house and, with both hands, started playing the nursery rhyme.

That was 13 years ago, and since that time, MacIntyre, who was born visually impaired, has blossomed into a full-fledged musical prodigy.  "I can't participate in different sports or anything, so I think music has become sort of a sport for me," he says.  "I just enjoy it so much.  That's how I express a lot of my feelings - through music."

At 5 years old, MacIntyre started composing his own music, and by age 11 he had recorded his first classical CD, Seeing Through Sound. Since that time, he has recorded two more classical CDs - Brothers for All Seasons and Grand Classics - which can be purchased at any Barnes & Noble bookstore or on Amazon.com.  This past February he made his classical orchestra debut as a featured soloist with The Phoenix Symphony at Phoenix Symphony Hall.

But his talents don't end there.  With a 4.0 grade point average at Arizona State University (he was accepted as a piano performance major when he was 14), this superkid finds time to dabble in computer programming, play the drums, sing and he used to play the guitar.

Though the majority of the Scottsdale resident's work so far has been for charitable causes at which he plays mostly classical music,  MacIntyre says he enjoys all types of music and wants to pursue a career in the pop genre.  "I just love how music complements the lyrics and the other way around," he says.   "Through the combination of lyrics and music, you can extract any emotion or any event that you are trying to depict.  The possibilities are endless."

And so is MacIntyre's career.  His mom, Carole, says he has had time to pursue his love of music because he has been home schooled for the past 12 years, but that's not why she chose to home school all three of her children.  "The reason a lot of parents home school is because they want that close contact with their kids," she says.  "It's not necessarily for academic or religious reasons; it's because they just want to have a relationship with their kids.  We're really close as a family."

She says that as a mom her proudest moment was when MacIntyre soloed with The Phoenix Symphony.  "He received a standing ovation, which he didn't know about until he left the stage," she says.  "The conductor escorted him off and told him about it.  It was really touching.  I wish he could have seen all the people standing and applauding him."