Classical Music's Most Talented Children

Worried your child is too young to start learning music? In today’s blog post, we take a look at the most famous child prodigies in classical music history. Sometimes, creative genius strikes long before adulthood.

10. Chopin - The son of two incredibly gifted musicians, it’s no surprise that Chopin showed an interest in music from a young age. However, it is astonishing that he had composed to polonaises by the age of seven.

9. Prokofiev - While many would consider composing a piano piece by the age of five a huge accomplishment prokofiev was far from content. He continued with his studies and by the age of nine had composed an entire opera, one he based on a children’s game he played with his friends.

8. Liszt - A composer famous for writing incredibly difficult piano pieces. Liszt began composing at the age of eight and had his first published work at the age of twelve.

7. Bellini - While it has never been confirmed, legend has it that Bellini could sing arias by the age of two and was an incredibly skilled pianist by the age of five.

6.  Bizet - Possibly one of the fastest learners of all time, Bizet went to the Paris Conservatoire when he was nine. He was one of the only students to ever do this, as the Paris Conservatoire typically had a strict age requirement of ten and over.

5. Claudio Arrau - Claudio Arrau quite literally had music coursing through his veins. Not only did he learn to read music before he could read letters, but he was accepted into the Stern Conservatory of Berlin at the age of eleven.

4. Yo-Yo Ma - Ma is of course one of the most famous musicians of all time but more than that, he achieved fame at a very young age. Yo-Yo Ma performed for President John F. Kennedy when he was only seven years old.

3. Haydn - Possibly the most sad story on this list, Haydn’s parents noticed his music talent at the age of six. However, they knew that he had no opportunity for growth in his hometown of Rohrau. They sent him to live and train with a relative in Hamburg, he never lived with his parents again. Of course, he went on to become one of the greatest composers in the world.

2. Beethoven - Beethoven’s parents pushed him to become a child star. He gave his first major performance at the age of seven. That wasn’t good enough for his father though, he decided to lie on the event posters to make young Beethoven seem like even more of a prodigy.

1. Mozart - Possibly the most famous composer of all time, young Mozart had composed ten symphonies and performed for royalty on multiple occasions by the time he was twelve. Still one of the biggest musicians ever, more Mozart records were sold than any other artist in the world in 2016.

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