When the English National Opera launched their Mini-Opera competition to discover freshest young and hidden talents in classical music, it’s doubtful they would have expected to uncover Alma Deutscher.
Aged just seven years old, Alma from Surrey is now the toast of the online music press after the opera she composed for the ENO competition based on Neil Gaiman’s The Sweeper of Dreams, was picked up by writer, comedian and Twitter super-user Stephen Fry.
The QI presenter tweeted: “Simply mind-blowing: Alma Deutscher playing her own compositions. A new Mozart?”
Listen to The Sweeper of Dreams:
Soon the BBC, Huffington Post and the Daily Telegraph were posting and promoting videos of the young prodigy and her music, many of which were sourced from Alma’s own YouTube channel.
Alma improvising at the organ:
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Viewers can watch the miniature creative composing a cello sonata and performing her pieces with a cool and assured calmness that would be impressive for any young musician. Considering Alma is only just coming to the end of Key Stage One as an infant in Primary School, her musical feats and confidence are truly staggering.
You can watch the BBC’s Jon Brain’s report and interview with Alma, on the BBC News website.
“Compose like Mozart, play violin like Perlman, play piano like Barenboim”
The young composer told the Independent that she wants “people to know how I play” and aspires to “compose like Mozart, play the violin like Perlman and play the piano like Barenboim“. Her father said Alma could name the notes on a piano by the age of two and was playing Handel sonatas within a year of receiving her first violin on her third birthday.
Watch a six-year-old Alma performing Seitz’s violin concerto No. 3 below:
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On her creative process, Alma says: “normally when I try it’s more difficult, but when I’m resting or in bed, I’m kind of relaxed.”
The Sweeper of Dreams narrowly missed making it into the final round of the Mini-Operas competition, but having received such immense exposure for her talents, Alma will hopefully be able to look forward to plenty of opportunities to enjoy playing music and writing compositions in the future.
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Earlier this year in March, an early piece composed by Mozart at just ten years old was discovered and performed for the very first time by Florian Birsak on the great composer’s very own fortepiano. Incredibly, at the time the piece was written, Mozart was already five years into his career as a composer and performing musician, touring the Royal courts of Europe.
What do you think of seven-year-old Alma and her musical talents? What other amazing musical prodigies have you found around the web?
Leave us a comment and post a video of the best young musicians you’ve seen from YouTube, Vimeo or other video sites.