Clothed in a ruby gown, Sophia Thacker sat in front of a Steinway piano with her hands on her lap. The 18-year-old dual credit student looked at the conductor from behind the thick lenses of her glasses, listening to the orchestra and waiting for her cue.
When the time came, her fingers glided over the ivory keys and started playing a melody.
Thacker had won the opportunity to play with the orchestra in their spring concert during a TCC concerto competition. Born with a genetic condition called optic nerve atrophy that made her legally blind, she had figured out ways to get around and overcome obstacles to get to this moment.
“I mean, it’s just my life,” she said. “This is what I know. So sometimes I’m like, ‘What do normal people see?’ and I’m like, ‘This is normal.’”
Thacker grew up in a musical household and was home-schooled her whole life. Six of her ten siblings played piano, and she first learned it through one of her sisters. Thacker officially started lessons at the age of 7 and since then, she practices the piano five times a week on average and regularly performs in competitions.
“I was brought up around music,” she said. “Some people do sports. Some people do other things. Our family mainly did piano.”
Thacker’s faith is one of the biggest influences on her music and her life. Part of the reason she learned the piano was to one day play in a church.
“Playing hymns, singing hymns to God, just praising God and otherwise, just making music to glorify God,” she said. “You can use your talents. You can just bless others with it, and that’s one way. Blessing others is one way you can glorify God.”
NE music adjunct Sarah Alexander has been Thacker’s piano teacher for five years. Alexander said Thacker has one of the strongest work ethics of all the students she has taught over the years.
“She has to do double the work, in some ways, to learn her music,” Alexander said. “It’s just not as easy for her to initially learn it and then also to perform it. There’s just different challenges that she has to navigate than a sighted person is going to be navigating.”
Thacker can’t easily see sheet music. She does most of her piano learning by ear, recording herself while also using other professional performances as reference.
“When I was younger, people taught me the notes,” she said. “And then as I grew older, I had to either blow it up under a really big magnifier or blow it up on my iPad.”
Last December, Thacker played Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 18 in Bflat Major in a concerto competition at TCC. The competition happens every year and the winner gets to perform with the Tarrant County Orchestra for their spring concert.
She had been learning the piece since last summer and became invested in it.
“I like the musical feel of it. I liked how it went,” she said. “Then my teacher told me that the concerto was written for Mozart’s friend, who was a blind pianist. That kind of just drew me further.”
The day of the competition, Thacker arrived just in time to perform after being stuck in traffic. She said while she was nervous, she just focused on playing.
“As long as my fingers are working, the nonsense normally just goes away, and I just enjoy the piece,” she said.
The judges unanimously agreed that Thacker was the winner.
Thacker said it had been a dream of her’s to perform with an orchestra as a soloist. Now, the 18-year-old has performed at a level higher than many musicians ever can.
For weeks, Thacker rehearsed with the orchestra to prepare for the concert. NE music adjunct and Tarrant County Orchestra conductor Bryan English worked with Thacker and Alexander to merge the solo with the orchestral accompaniment.
“It is a collaboration,” English said. “When you’re young, you very much feel like, ‘I don’t want to let the orchestra down and the conductor and the crowd.’ It’s a bit of pressure, but that’s what we signed up for.”
Alexander said it was special that Thacker got to rehearse and play with a full orchestra.
“It takes a lot of guts for [the] visually impaired. She can kind of see the conductor, but really not completely,” Alexander said. “She’s just got to rely on her ears so much and be confident in her own visual cues that she’s able to give the conductor.”
While music is a big part of her life, Thacker’s true passion lies with political science.
She became interested in constitutional law after taking an American government class in 2023. She plans to pursue political science as a career but said she will continue playing the piano.
“It would be really nice to just go to hospitals and play the piano there for people,” she said. “I think it could be a blessing to others. And I’m trying to, in all the things I do, to honor God.”
In the final moments of the orchestra performance, Thacker played a series of complex melodies and scales, her fingers moving swiftly across the keys. As the last notes of her solo rang out, the orchestra ended the concerto with the drawn-out sounds of strings.
Applause started from across the room. Thacker stood up and bowed to the audience of her friends, family and strangers. From the crowd, a family member gave her a bouquet of flowers as the applause continued.
Alexander is proud of what Thacker has accomplished and said what really counted was that she will enjoy this moment for the rest of her life.
“I hope that it gives her confidence in life and just the knowledge that she can do what she wants to do,” Alexander said. “If she puts her mind to it, she can pretty much do anything she wants. I hope that that’s the overall lesson that she takes with her, but also just the sweet memory of this time.”
