![]() ![]() But they were true prodigies, young musicians who combined technical brilliance with promising artistry. Daniel Barenboim, the Argentinean-born pianist, performed in Vienna when he was 8, and Anne-Sophie Mutter, the German violinist, made her international debut at 13. Six-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dazzled 18th century dukes and monarchs with his skills on the keyboard and the violin, and already had several compositions under his belt. There have, of course, always been prodigies. An increasing number of Chinese prodigies attend European and American music schools and conservatories. But, says McLachlan, an acclaimed performer, Chinese children succeed at the keyboard because their families value the work ethic that piano playing demands. "They dominate music making at both the school and the conservatory level." With China reportedly having 30 million young pianists, the fact that a number of them are winning competitions may not be surprising. "Today most young musicians winning competitions are Asian," notes Murray McLachlan, a teacher at Manchester, England's famous Chetham's School of Music. The American Protégé competition already features a category for players from ages 6 to 10, and next year New York's Kaufman Music Center will hold its second International Youth Piano Competition, open to players ages 7 to 17. In a nod to the youthful trend, the prominent Van Cliburn piano competition recently announced that it will add contests for 13- to 17-year-olds. ![]() The trend is most obvious for the piano, though string players are also showing impressive skills at an ever-younger age. When I was young, nobody played them until they were adults." Today kids are recording the Chopin études at the age of 10. "It's the Olympics syndrome: Records exist in order to be broken. "Musicians are doing more advanced things at a younger age than ever before," says Yoheved Kaplinsky, a professor of piano at the Juilliard School in New York City and head of its pre-college division. Welcome to the awe-inspiring age of underage marvels who rattle off Chopin's tricky études as well as entire piano concertos. ![]()
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