Amazing Humans - Alma Deutscher

Alma Deutscher photographed by Alex Nightingale Smith, CC BY-SA 4.0  via Wikimedia Commons 

I sincerely hope that you already know who Alma Deutscher is; If you do, then please go away and do something useful, because this short article isn't going to tell you anything that you don't already know. And what you already know is that Alma Deutscher is amazing.

I don't mean "amazing" as in she-plays-the-violin-really-well-for-a-kid amazing. I'm talking once-in-a-century-brilliant-composer kind of amazing. That's not hyperbole. She learned to play the piano at two. She learned the violin at three.  At six, she composed her first piano sonata. At nine she wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra. Since then, she's written a full-length opera and a ton of other compositions. She's played Carnegie Hall. And as I write this article in early 2022, Alma Deutscher is still only sixteen years old.

I'm pretty sure that if Alma ever decides to have her genome sequenced, in the analysis we'll find little strands of DNA shaped like treble clefs. OK, maybe that's a bit hyperbolic, but it's true that this young woman was simply born with music baked into her genes. And she's not only destined for greatness - She's already achieved it.

So what, you're thinking, because classical music isn't your thing? Well, if so then that's a shame, because you're cheating yourself out of one of the most beautiful of all human experiences by not listening to it. All real musicians appreciate classical music, as they do all forms of music. At least do a kid near you a favor and give them a chance to gain an appreciation for it. Take them to a concert. Listen to some Beethoven with them. And Chopin. Add a little Mozart. Give Saint-Saëns a try. And by all means, dial up some Alma Deutscher. 

If you take the time to get to know Alma, you'll quickly realize that her musical ability isn't the only part of her persona that validates her status as a wunderkind. Example: She's been repeatedly compared to Mozart, and her standard response goes something like this: "I don't want to be another Mozart. I want to be Alma Deutscher." I love her for that.

I don't need to remind you that there's an awful lot of depressing stuff going on here on planet earth; You know that as well as I do. But maybe it's worthwhile spending a few seconds thinking about how we can best cope with all of that. Me, I try to look for little bright spots wherever I can find them. And Alma Deutscher is one of the brightest of the bright spots I've run across in a very long time. Put her playlist on a continuous loop sometime and see if you find it as therapeutic as I do.

I'll leave you with another great quote of hers, from an article about her in The New York Times:

“Lots of people have been telling me that if I want to grow up, I have to compose music that will reflect the ugliness of the modern world. I don’t want to do this. I want to compose music that I find beautiful.”

That is exactly what she does. Her music is beautiful. Give it a listen and find out for yourself. Here's lookin' at you, Alma. We're gonna have a lot of fun following your career.

https://www.almadeutscher.com/