Music can be a solitary experience. We get lost in our own thoughts, and let the sound change us. It helps us find ways to connect to moments in time. But once in a while, we can share our love of music with others. Then it becomes all the more magical.

For a group of strangers, what brought them together started with a father’s video that went viral, a man’s selflessness and a child’s love for music.

A Surprising Sound

When Isaiah Kofie was sitting in his home one day, he heard a sudden burst of keyboard music. It was as if someone had been playing for years and had decided to just wander in and give a concert in his home.

Jude Kofie plays the keyboard while Bill Magnusson listens. Credit from YouTube

Kofie got up, and looked to see who was playing. He was stunned to see that it was his 11-year-old son, Jude Nyame Yie Kofie. “I was here watching the news when I heard him play something. So I grabbed my phone, went down there, and was like ‘Dude, play that again.’”

Isaiah, who was a drummer when he lived in Ghana, uploaded the video, where it quickly went viral. Jude quickly became a local star in Colorado, with his video being highlighted on news outlet Denver ABC 7.

Piano tuner Bill Magnusson found himself enthralled at the music the young boy played in the video. The music moved him so much that he contacted the news station with an idea: to give the prodigy a grand piano.

Watching Jude’s playing on a simple electric piano, he knew he wanted to support the young musician.

(My) first reaction, ‘This kid is Mozart level,’” Magnusson told ABC 7.

And the best piano he could buy, he did. But the money for it came from somewhere special – an inheritance Magnusson had received after his father died. Magnusson told the ABC 7 that his father would have wanted to help the child. 

Jude’s father told the news station that there would have been no way the family could buy their own piano, if it hadn’t been for Magnusson.

‘The Face Of God’

ABC 7 asked Magnusson what made him so eager to help. With tears in his eyes, he said, “It’s like looking at the face of God. It really is.”

As for young Jude, well he is practicing with a piano tutor courtesy of Magnusson, performs as the lead keyboardist at the family’s church and has even performed at a wedding.

Mr. Sullivan, Jude’s piano teacher, had this to say about the child. “He’s so eager .. so hungry to learn more.”

But for Magnusson, it’s not just about this moment for him and the boy.

“The ripple effects for the next 70 or 80 years are incalculable,” he said. “It’s not just for him. It’s for all the people he’s going to touch.”

Watch the video below and see how Jude’s talent was discovered and how a stranger went out of his way to help and support his dreams:

Sources: People • My Positive Outlook • Denver7