It started with “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on a toy xylophone.

Nicholas Larsen plunked out the song on the instrument for his 3-year-old daughter and within minutes little Anna was able to play it back for him.

“She just figured it out,” Nicholas said in a phone interview from Boston. “It was sort of like something clicked.”

Did it ever.

On Monday afternoon, Anna, now 6, will perform five short pieces on the piano, ranging from Bach to Beethoven, during a free recital at First-Plymouth Congregational Church.

It will be her second “big” performance this year. In April, she performed as a guest of the Newton Symphony Orchestra in Newton, Mass., performing an eight-minute solo at a family concert celebrating Mozart’s 250th birthday.

“She got a standing ovation for that,” her proud father said.

Anna is the daughter of Nicholas, a Lincoln native, and his wife, Ivy. Her grandparents are Jim and Penny Larsen of Lincoln.

Nicholas said Anna plays by ear, meaning she plays back what she hears. She doesn’t read music.

“She’s never hit a wall where she couldn’t figure it out,” he said. Nicholas and his wife initially introduced her to the piano.

Anna now takes a one-hour lesson from a piano instructor each week and practices one to two hours a day.

Her biggest challenge has been her coordination, her dad said. A 6-year-old’s hands aren’t very big, after all.

“It’s taken quite a bit of work,” he said. “We helped her a lot in terms of going from ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’ to Mozart.”

Naturally, Anna’s ability has impressed her father. But it’s her perfect pitch rather than her keyboard skills that has him more excited. He noted her skill about a year after she started playing.

“Her ear is so sensitive,” he said. “I can play five notes simultaneously. It makes a horrible sound, but she can tell me every single one of those notes I’m playing.”

So far, Anna is enjoying the piano. Her father hopes she sticks with it, but he and his wife aren’t pressuring her. For now, they’ve just been enjoying her performances.

“It’s like a 6-year-old reciting 10 pages of Shakespeare,” he said. “It’s sort of ridiculous when you think about it.”

Reach Jeff Korbelik at 473-7213 or jkorbelik@journalstar.com.