Although he had just taken up piano, violin lessons were arranged as well.
Four years on, the seven-year-old is a master of both instruments, passing grade 8 exams in both.
He achieved a distinction in the violin exam in January, when he was still six, and received the top piano certificate over the summer.
When Edward Tomanek was given a toy tennis racket at three and started playing it like a violin, his parents took the hint.
Although he had just taken up piano, violin lessons were arranged as well.
Four years on, the seven-year-old is a master of both instruments, passing grade 8 exams in both.
He achieved a distinction in the violin exam in January, when he was still six, and received the top piano certificate over the summer.
Now he has started learning the organ, practising at the village church in Somersham, Cambridgeshire, where he lives with his parents, Stuart and Lyudmilla. He also loves composing his own pieces.
Curiously, Mr and Mrs Tomanek aren’t musical at all. They used to enjoy listening to classical music but had to stop as their son was always practising.
‘When he’s got a clear run he could practise for three or four hours per instrument if we left him,’ said Russian-born Mrs Tomanek, 34, a translator.
Edward, who has won a bursary to King’s College School in Cambridge, home of the world-famous King’s choristers, does at least put on a private concert for them each Sunday.
‘Chopin is one of my favourites,’ he said.‘He puts a lot of emotion into his music.’
The Tomaneks’s musical hopes for their son started on a more modest level.
‘I thought it would be nice for him to play a little bit of piano, just for his general development,’ said his mother. ‘Not very much, just nursery rhymes with one hand.
‘But within a couple of months he said “I want a violin”. He had a little toy tennis racket and he used to stand in front of the television and pretend to be playing it like a violin, so we thought we’d encourage it.’
The couple found a teacher willing to take on a three year old and within a year Edward was taking his Grade 1 exam.
‘I just thought it was because he started young and because he liked it but the teacher said that we should start considering music seriously for him,’ Mrs Tomanek said.
She and her husband, who works in IT, contacted the charity Future Talent, which agreed to cover the cost of the violin lessons to ease the financial pressure.
Its chairman Nick Robinson, who is also headmaster of King’s College School, where boarders pay £18,000 a year, offered Edward a bursary.
‘He’s a stunning player with great musical talent,’ he said. ‘He just sort of connects with the music. It’s astonishing.’
Edward’s mother added: ‘We try to be supportive but we’re not pushy. If he said to me tomorrow that he doesn’t want to play any more, I’ll say “That’s fine”.’
David Smith, from examination body the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music, said he could not say whether Edward was the youngest to pass Grade 8 exams.
‘But his two wonderful achievements are highly unusual for a student so young,’ he said.