WATERVILLE --Gjergji Gaqi is a magician of sorts.

The Colby College senior has the power to pull you deep into a brooding, introspective soundscape and then, with virtually no pause, send you on a whitewater-rapid ride of sound waves that races the heart and delights the ears.

His magic wand is a piano.

Colby music professor Paul Machlin calls Gaqi's playing extraordinary.

"He is one of the best musicians I've seen at Colby," Machlin said, "and I've been at Colby for 33 years."

Gaqi, a native of Albania, is no stranger to accolades and awards. He earned the Colby College Music Department Prize in 2003-04, an honor to go along with several national competitions he won in his homeland.

Last year he prevailed in Colby's concerto competition, earning him the right to play the first movement of Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37 by Ludwig Von Beethoven with the Colby Symphony Orchestra.

His next performance in Waterville is slated for 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Universalist-Unitarian Church. Gaqi plays the piano and, occasionally, the organ, for the church each week for the Sunday service.

"I don't have enough time right now to learn the pedals," Gaqi said of the organ, "so it is not really any different from playing a normal keyboard."

Time is tight for Gaqi. Along with his academic load at Colby, he typically practices the piano two to three hours a day and sometimes many hours more. Yet for Gaqi, the son of a composer, his regimen is a source of guilt.

"I think generally speaking that I never practice as much as I want to or probably as I should practice," he said shortly after finishing an audition at the University of Maryland, one of several schools Gaqi is considering for graduate work in advanced piano study.

Gaqi, who started playing seriously 15 years ago, realized long ago that the great works of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and other giants of classical music demand an almost all-consuming exploration by the pianist before they can be played properly.

"The way I see it essentially is I can't really play a piece well unless I understand and feel the piece, so that I know what it is all about," he said.

That dedication to his art is coupled with remarkable ability, according to his piano teacher at Colby.

"I think there is no doubt about it that he has both the technical skills, the ear and the mind," Adjunct Associate Professor of Music Cheryl Tschanz Newkirk said. "He is a very intelligent young man."

Yet for all his intelligence -- he is fluent in Albanian, English, French and Italian -- Gaqi manages to fit in just fine at Colby, according to Tschanz Newkirk.

"He gets around campus. He communicates well. He is open and friendly and has a lot of energy," she said.

But put a piano in front of him and Gaqi stands apart.

Machlin compares him to a great athlete in describing the technical brilliance of the finger coordination and speed he displays when playing.

Along with those physical gifts, Machlin said, Gaqi exhibits great control of the music, an ability to build a musical line and communicate a musical thought.

Machlin said Gaqi in effect creates stories with the music that draw an emotional response from his audience.

Gaqi did just that in his senior recital at Colby last month.

At one point he played "Rain Tree Sketch II," a piece by the avant-garde Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. He played the work at a slower tempo than the score called for because that tempo "didn't feel right," Gaqi said.

He followed "Rain Tree Sketch II" with the hyper-drive sprint of Frederyk Chopin's "Etude Op. 10 No. 4 in C# minor."

The two pieces serve as testament both to Gaqi's versatility and his remarkable athleticism on the keyboard.

Machlin said some of what Gaqi brings to the piano is hard to define but impossible to miss, an understanding of the nuances and subtleties of musical expression well beyond what would be expected for somebody so young.

"For someone his age, he is incredibly mature in his choices in that realm," he said. "In how he phrases and shapes a melodic line, the choices he makes are profound, and you don't get that often in young players. You have to have certain life experiences in order to do that. If you talk to Gjergji, you realize he's had those experiences."

Machlin said that, as a child, Gaqi witnessed people shooting each other in the streets of what was then a most politically unstable Albania.

Yet Gaqi points not to the violence he witnessed in his homeland but the great diversity he encountered at the United World College of the Adriatic in Duino, Italy as having the most significance influence on him and his view of the world.

The United World College system actually is a collection of high level high schools -- 12 distributed among five continents -- that boast the best and brightest students from countries around the globe.

Gaqi said 90 nations were represented among the 200 students at the United World College he attended for three years.

"I think my life is more diverse in a way than that of other people," Gaqi said. "I suppose you can say essentially that having seen more things gives you a (greater) perspective (on life)."

Gaqi's goal is to obtain an advanced degree in piano so that he can pursue a music career as a teacher and performer. To rely on performing alone for a livelihood, he said, would be too much a gamble, given the uncertainty of the performing world.

But he said he also can't fathom a life without performances.

"I think the ultimate goal is to be able to have something to say that would be enjoyable to others," he said. "I mean that is the hope. I don't know how often it happens."