In the meantime, have a listen to Alma - this is her voice, as expressed so poignantly on her “60 Minutes” interview: “Of course I love Mozart … But I think I would prefer to be the first Alma than to be a second Mozart.”Ĭonductor Alasdair Neale, violin soloist Alma Deutscher present works by Elgar, Ginastera and Deutscher For Alma, preserving that sense of wonder and happiness will not be easy. “That spark, that sense of wonderment and happiness in her bones must be preserved and protected at all costs, whatever direction it ends up leading her in.”Īs Thomson forewarned, the art of music is constantly bombarded by external interests. “She’s a lovely little girl, who brings such unalloyed pleasure to what she does” says Neale. “If Alma is handling her creativity with joy, and it’s being nurtured, then I do think she has a bright future.” “Being a composer is a lifelong journey, and you find your voice brick by brick,” Ludwig says. I would hope that her parents have just the right degree of protection of her, to make sure the weight of expectations doesn’t become too oppressive.”īrushing aside the needless comparisons, both Neale and Ludwig believe that with proper guidance, Alma will find her own voice, leading the way for a very bright future. People are going to always want more of her than she should be willing to give. “There’s something very delicate about this kind of talent. “The music business and the commercialization of music is – let’s say, there are shark-infested waters,” says Neale. Opera San Jose’s run of her “Cinderella,” which begins December 16, is sold out as well. The benefit for the business? Tickets for Alma’s weekend concerts in San Jose – which also feature the overture from her opera, “Cinderella” along with her own performance of her Violin Concerto – were sold-out within an hour of her “60 Minutes” interview. “While comparisons to Mozart might help us understand the nature of a young person’s gifts, you have to be careful not to interrupt their own nurture and development with this kind of thing.” “‘60 Minutes” is looking for a story, but a gifted young person really needs to be nurtured, to have their creativity challenged,” says Ludwig. But as of today, elevating him to “immortal” status remains a stretch. Mozart, himself the most famous prodigy, was churned out of that unrepentant system. Jay Greenberg, the “Bluejay” featured on “60 Minutes” 13 years ago, is by most barometers now a successful composer in his early 20s. Likewise, the music business was not designed for the advantage of children. “60 Minutes” dangled the idea of Alma batting in the big leagues, noting that “if you win the pennant, there’s immortality.” Unfortunately, music history is riddled with stories of prodigies who lose their way. Alma is clearly an extremely gifted young person, with a very active mind and a lot of musical gifts,” he notes, adding “Where to put Alma in the long term is another question. They hear things that a lot of older, trained musicians would not. “I’ve had three very young students who have shown all kinds of gifts in this area. 5 edition.Ĭomposer David Ludwig, chair of composition at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, has seen this kind of talent before. This time, it’s Alma, who was the focus of a profile on the CBS show’s Nov. In 2004, television’s “60 Minutes” presented the story of a young Connecticut boy that led viewers to surmise that “Bluejay” was perhaps “the greatest talent to come along in 200 years.” It’s little more than a decade later, and they’ve already named another. When one comes along, the spotlight shines ever so brightly. Nothing in music is as rare as a prodigy in the field of composition. She has the grammar and syntax of Mendelssohn and Schubert so firmly in her bones, it’s extraordinary.” “Nobody I’ve encountered in my career has had Alma’s level of fluency. “She’s the real deal,” says Alasdair Neale, former music director of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, current music director of the Marin Symphony and conductor of the weekend’s concerts in San Jose. The question on everybody’s mind: Is Alma Deutscher – a British-born, home-schooled pianist, violinist and composer – the real deal ? This Saturday and Sunday at the California Theater in San Jose, Symphony Silicon Valley presents a program of works by Elgar, Ginastera, – and 12 year-old wunderkind Alma Deutscher. Sadly, no group of musicians has ever been as vulnerable to the demands and expectations of the business as prodigies. Those are the words of American composer Virgil Thomson, who in 1961 recognized that music was losing its purity and autonomy to the music business. “Keeping the rot peripheral, preventing it from infecting the heart, is not going to be easy.
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