Author Topic: Child prodigies  (Read 2315 times)

Wowbagger

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Child prodigies
« on: 04 August, 2018, 08:39:14 am »
I don't think we've done this before.

I'm quite impressed with this lass, who clearly has more trouble adjusting the stool than she does rattling off a virtuoso performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1ZkVQ51Xvk
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Wowbagger

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #1 on: 19 September, 2018, 04:23:54 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3HcMLAFgps

Bloody hell! She's 5 and she's playing that! I did that prelude for my diploma. I still play it several times every day as a warm-up piece.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Wowbagger

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #2 on: 28 June, 2019, 05:03:05 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRpDctacEyo&fbclid=IwAR3Uo79TmwwB-3Eq_8FiQ6nCSrGm5YJ1Q1jUbWxtlS66sSwOU6t_ayGf4aQ

I wonder how many of these Wunderkinder will make it to the top as adults? I can think of loads of massively talented junior chess players who used it as a stepping stone to a career in something else but drifted away from the game in their teens.

(It is said that there are only 3 areas in which you get child prodigies: music, chess and maths. I would imagine that go would also allow for child prodigies. it's just not nearly so popular in this country and I've never heard of any.).
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #3 on: 28 June, 2019, 05:07:27 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRpDctacEyo&fbclid=IwAR3Uo79TmwwB-3Eq_8FiQ6nCSrGm5YJ1Q1jUbWxtlS66sSwOU6t_ayGf4aQ

I wonder how many of these Wunderkinder will make it to the top as adults?

Not many. It's not just talent you need to succeed long term. Some will though, Mozart managed it for one.
I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #4 on: 28 June, 2019, 05:16:48 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRpDctacEyo&fbclid=IwAR3Uo79TmwwB-3Eq_8FiQ6nCSrGm5YJ1Q1jUbWxtlS66sSwOU6t_ayGf4aQ

I wonder how many of these Wunderkinder will make it to the top as adults?

Not many. It's not just talent you need to succeed long term. Some will though, Mozart managed it for one.

If I may just channel Tom Lehrer...

It's a sobering thought, for example, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two <checks notes> eleven years.



"He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." ~ Freidrich Neitzsche

Wowbagger

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #5 on: 28 June, 2019, 07:05:51 pm »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRpDctacEyo&fbclid=IwAR3Uo79TmwwB-3Eq_8FiQ6nCSrGm5YJ1Q1jUbWxtlS66sSwOU6t_ayGf4aQ

I wonder how many of these Wunderkinder will make it to the top as adults?

Not many. It's not just talent you need to succeed long term. Some will though, Mozart managed it for one.

That's right. Of the highly talented junior chess players I'm familiar with, Luke McShane and David Howell made it to the top after starting very young. Both play for England as adults. Both were super-outstanding. I watched Luke McShane win the British under9 Championship at the age of 7. In the last round, he beat one of the kids I coached who, 2 years later, won the u11 title with 100%. That player disappeared without trace (from the chess-playing point of view) in his early teens.
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It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #6 on: 28 June, 2019, 07:48:08 pm »
There used to be a BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. I don't think they were quite that young though, and I don't know how many of them went on to make a career in music (I'm sure google would find some).
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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #7 on: 28 June, 2019, 08:46:58 pm »
There used to be a BBC Young Musician of the Year competition. I don't think they were quite that young though, and I don't know how many of them went on to make a career in music (I'm sure google would find some).


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/15/cellist-sheku-kanneh-mason-wins-2016-bbc-young-musician-award


16 when he won the contest.  I've seen him play a couple of times this year as he's a "Young Artist In Residence" at the RLPO.
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hellymedic

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #8 on: 28 June, 2019, 09:04:43 pm »
He's rather special. I think he played at that Harry weds Meghan gig and has been mentioned on yacf before.

FB's plugging his pianist sister's debut album.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #9 on: 28 June, 2019, 09:11:09 pm »
You mean they're still holding it! I remember watching it back in the 80s!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #10 on: 28 June, 2019, 09:14:41 pm »
The entire family are talented.  I've seen his sister play with him. 


https://youtu.be/VaUjDpquoGQ
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ElyDave

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #11 on: 28 June, 2019, 10:17:26 pm »
do chess pros actually make a decent living?

compared with a sports ball player I imagine sponsorhip opportunities are smaller
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Wowbagger

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #12 on: 29 June, 2019, 10:32:41 am »
do chess pros actually make a decent living?

compared with a sports ball player I imagine sponsorhip opportunities are smaller

Depends where they live or are prepared to play. Matthew Sadler was something like no. 4 in the world when he said it didn't pay nearly enough and he got a job with Hewlett Packard. OTOH Kasparov is fabulously wealthy* and when Nigel Short lost the World Championship to him his loser's money was more than Steve Davis's for winning the World Snooker Championship the same year (£1.4m compared to £1.2m IIRC).

The top UK grandmasters used to play in the Bundeslige as the pay was good. When my daughters were young they used to get asked to play in the 4 Nations Chess League when it was in its infancy. Some top players got paid reasonably well by their teams' sponsors. OTOH I recall giving one very strong player and published chess author a lift from Essex to Birmingham one weekend and he went ballistic when I asked him for what I thought was a reasonable contribution to my fuel costs. That might just have been him being a skinflint though. He also teaches law in a university.

*Or was before the Lehmann Bros crash. I think he lost a great deal then.
Quote from: Dez
It doesn’t matter where you start. Just start.

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #13 on: 29 June, 2019, 10:52:05 am »
Interesting, one of my nephews used to be a UK standard player as a yout, don't think he plays much these days. He's a tech influencer and earns about a quarter of my annual salary in a weekend doing something for Samsung
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Steph

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Re: Child prodigies
« Reply #14 on: 14 July, 2019, 12:33:29 pm »
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