![]() ![]() "Almost always, things don't sustain themselves through such a long period of time."įamilies may lack the resources for specialist tuition, or children might not be able to access the teaching needed to take them to the next level. "There's so much that has to go right, and stay right-typically, for a decade or more," he explained. He estimates around three percent of children with prodigy-levels of ability go on to successful careers in those fields. Quite the opposite," Feldman told me earlier. "Most child prodigies don't end up being successful, recognized, fulfilled, happy adults. I don't think I was born with a special gene or anything like that." It's kind of obvious really when you think about it, if you do something that you enjoy and you have the support from the people around you, then you are quite likely to be good at doing that thing. "I just think of myself as someone who is quite good at what I do. ![]() "I don't think of myself as a prodigy-actually I don't feel comfortable when people call me that," Harliono explains. Harliono has played with the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and at Britain's Royal Albert Hall, alongside famed Chinese pianist Lang Lang. One piano prodigy who does meet Feldman's exacting criteria is 15-year-old George Harliono, who performed his first solo recital at the age of nine. Most child prodigies don't end up being successful, recognized, fulfilled, happy adults. I ask his mother whether experts have ever tested Curtis. But being prodigiously talented isn't the same as being a prodigy. This isn't to say that Curtis is not talented: He is, prodigiously. As he obtained it when he was 11, however, Curtis is one year past Feldman's eligibility test. Hayley claims that Curtis is the youngest person in the world to obtain a university-level degree in music, with a diploma from Trinity College London that takes him to a professional level of performance and musical understanding. Technically, Curtis doesn't fulfill the criteria of a child prodigy-at least, not according to Feldman's definition. Beside it is a plaque that reads, "World's Youngest Graduate Pianist." Curtis is waiting for us with his mom, dressed in a white silk suit. A framed photograph of Curtis dressed as Mozart looms over us in the entrance hallway. We meet at the Elton family home in a north London suburb. Read more: The Century-Long Battle to Disprove the Myth That All Women Want Childrenįinding a child prodigy willing to talk to me was proving difficult until I reached out to Curtis' mom, Hayley. "It's a child who performs at an adult, professional level in a highly demanding field by the age of ten." "I had to create one," he explained over the phone from Massachusetts. When I spoke to him earlier, he told me that there was no accepted definition of a child prodigy when he began his career. Professor David Feldman, a cognitive development expert at Tufts University, is one of few academics to devote his career to studying child prodigies and savants. ("Unfortunately I will decline the request," she replied gracefully to my email, "as I have with all other similar media requests for many years.") Or shy Andrew Halliburton, who found the stress of being a maths prodigy overwhelming and dropped out of university to work in McDonald's.ĭespite enormous public interest in child prodigies, relatively little research exists around the phenomenon. Take Ruth Lawrence, who graduated from Oxford University aged 13, moved to Israel, and has steadfastly refused media interviews throughout her adult life. Child prodigies generally avoid the limelight those who do go public will endure relentless media attention throughout their childhood. ![]()
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