BRITISH child prodigy Shane Thomas’ astonishing gift sees him able to play classical masterpieces on the piano after one listen — and write his own songs while playing computer games.

    Now, the 15-year-old mini-Mozart is preparing to wow the world by composing music for a 45-piece orchestra.

    The teenager, from Woking, Surrey, has been given just three weeks to put together the arrangements for a live performance at a 700-seater concert hall as part of BBC’s Music Day.

    And it will come at the end of an astonishing week for the young pianist who also releases his first classical album — composed in his head from the age of 8 while concentrating on other things altogether.

    Thomas said, “I love being challenged and composing my own piece for a 45-piece orchestra is the hardest thing I have done.

    “I scored it all in my head and then wrote it out later. Now I’ve just got to go into a studio to work on layering the orchestra’s many parts.

    “Being able to do this and with my album coming out on the same week, it’s a dream come true — it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.”

    Thomas, who attends St. George’s College, Weybridge — famed for educating British computer boffin Sir Clive Sinclair and England cricketing brothers Adam and Ben Hollioake — was 7 when he first sat down at a piano after hassling his dad to get him the instrument for years.

    Amazingly, he could almost instantly play by ear.

    Now his first album “Note My Dream” is set to be released June 1, featuring some of the songs he has put together over the past seven years.

    “Dance of the Bowerbirds” came to him in a dream after watching a Sir David Attenborough documentary at the age of 9. He awoke the following morning and played what he had dreamed.

    His father Clayton, 51, a special needs teacher, who split with Thomas’ mother after disagreeing about how best to nurture their talented son, said, “It’s an amazing gift.

    “People don’t believe it until they see him play. He can listen to a piece of music in the other room while playing computer games and play it back later perfectly.”(SD-Agencies)