Late Son’s Composition Finished After Mother Reaches Out to the Internet

Kyan Pennell playing the piano and her mother holding up her son's completed composition.
A grieving mother asked musicians on the internet to help finish her 12-year-old son's only classical music composition. (Image: via Facebook)

In a recent development, an Australian mother tried to fulfill the last desire of her deceased son. Amanda Brierley of Queensland, Australia, found out something after the demise of her beloved son Kyan. She found out her son was keen on completing a musical composition, so she reached out to the Internet to finish her son’s composition.

Finishing her son’s composition

Kyan Pennell died in a freak car accident that involved the family car. Amanda’s husband and neighbors tried to revive him by performing CPR, but they failed. Amanda said: “It wasn’t a car accident; it wasn’t like speed involved, or they were on the road and got hit by a car; he was opening a gate. I couldn’t stop crying; I was just hysterical at that point. We all were.”

With a heavy heart, Amanda first stumbled across the unfinished composition of her son, but soon after, she was hard at work trying to complete it.

She was determined to finish her son’s composition and reached out to web users for help. The unfortunate child was composing a song, but he died before it could be completed. The response was overwhelming, and her son’s composition was finished, with top musicians and orchestras performing it.

Amanda reached out to the Internet to finish her son's composition.
With a heavy heart, Amanda first stumbled across the unfinished composition of her son, but soon after, she was hard at work trying to complete it. (Image: via Facebook)

Reaching out to the web for help

She reached out to the web users for this. She said: “I’d never heard it. I wrote a post on Facebook just to my friends, and then about 15 minutes later, my first friend submitted a rendition. It was just incredible to hear what [Kyan had] written. I just thought: ‘Okay, I’m going to try my luck. Most of the orchestras I asked gave us a submission; they made their arrangements and played it. That was incredible.”

The tremendous response moved Amanda and her family. She recalls that her dead son was a wonderful human being and was mature for his age. Even though he was coping with ADHD, he had developed a keen interest in mythology and Greek history. “His neurodiversity worked in his favor. He tried to get into the depths of everything that made him interested, whether it was piano or the human mind,” said his mom.

amanda-brierley
Kyan taught himself how to play the piano by watching YouTube videos. (Image: via Facebook)

A natural love of the classics

Interestingly, Kyan developed an interest in playing the piano only seven months before his demise. Amanda recalls he was quick to learn the nuances of the piano. She said Kyan used YouTube tutorials and his iPad. She added: “After that, he came home, and he pulled out this very old kids’ keyboard that his great-grandmother had given him when he was much younger. It had missing keys, so he made cardboard cut-out keys to fix it. After that, he started learning other classical pieces, which was interesting because I didn’t realize he liked classical music.”

While Amanda had thought it was just another phase, that was not the case. Kyan managed to remember 32 classical pieces and dabbled with pop songs too. He even asked his mother for piano lessons. While Amanda regrets not recording the songs played by Kyan when he was alive, the musical submissions have somewhat calmed her battered soul.

While she will not get her son back, his memory will live through her son’s composition.

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