Alma Deutscher, born in England in 2005, is a composer, violinist, pianist and conductor. She started playing the piano when she was two years old and the violin when she was three. She composed her first piano sonata at the age of five. At seven, she completed a short opera 'The Sweeper of Dreams'. Aged nine, she wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra.  At the age of ten, she wrote her first full-length opera, 'Cinderella'.  Her compositions have been praised by classical music’s royalty, including Anna Sophie-Mutter, Thomas Hampson, and Zubin Mehta who called her “one of the greatest musical talents today”. Sir Simon Rattle declared that “Alma is a force of nature”.Europe’s most prestigious music festivals—from Aix-en-Provence to Lucerne—have welcomed her participation. The Vienna State Opera has performed the family version of her opera "Cinderella". It has now been performed on three continents to sold-out houses, and was described as “a once-in-a-lifetime opera-going event that had audiences standing and cheering”. In 2019, she gave her sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, in a concert dedicated to her own compositions. Her new full-length opera, 'The Emperor's New Waltz', commissioned by the Salzburg State Theatre, will premiere in March 2023. 

 

Her website:  https://www.almadeutscher.com

Her YouTube channel has more than 15 million views:   https://www.youtube.com/c/AlmaDeutscher.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Deutscher

Also:   https://newcriterion.com/issues/2020/2/music-to-our-ears

The Programme:
1.   The Bee by Shubert (4:57)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPGAzuHSMy4
Alma is 8 years old and is talking to Ellen DeGeneres. She plays a short piece "The Bee".

2. Introduction - Alma Deutscher - NBC News December 2019.  (2.51)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbHgDLqWcMM
Alma has loved music ever since her parents gave her a violin for her third birthday. Alma is now a world-class composer and she performed her original compositions in a sold out show at Carnegie Hall.

3.  Alma Deutscher pulls four musical notes out of hat (4:38)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvECZ_ZXGqs
Born in 2005, Alma was playing piano and violin by the time she was 3 years old. She composed her first piano sonata at the age of five. At seven, she completed a short opera The Sweeper of Dreams. Aged nine, she wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra, which she premiered in Spain in 2014.

4.  60 Minutes Archives: Alma Deutscher, British music prodigy 2020. (13.0)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgeF3EklbFA  
Alma was playing piano and violin by the time she was 3 years old and wrote her first opera at 10. For her, making music seems as natural as breathing.

5.  Shine Holy Ray of Love - from Cinderella (8:21)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf0kaSliPng
At the age 10 she wrote her first full-length opera, Cinderella, which had its European premiere in Vienna in 2016 under the patronage of conductor Zubin Mehta, and its U.S. premiere a year later. Presented by Opera San Jose and the Packard Humanities Institute. Alma is on the left hand side playing the organ - her sister is the flower girl.

6. Finding Cinderella - BBC Documentary 2017 (20.28)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0mb0F8fjqQ
Alma Deutscher - Finding Cinderella - Is she a reincarnation of Mozart's sister?

7.  Waltz of the Sirens (18:06)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0xMpLXQNvM
Composed by Alma at age 14 and performed at Carnegie Hall, Dec 2019. The waltz was the ending of Alma's sold-out debut at Carnegie Hall, in which she also played her violin concerto and her piano concerto.

8.  Rondino in Eb major (4.33)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgfmpqWPBIE
Alma aged 7 (violin), Itamar Ringel (viola), Daniel Seroussi (piano). This is a revised version (for Violin, Viola and Piano) of Alma's Rondino in E-flat major for violin and piano from 2012. Recorded in the Mendelssohn Remise in Berlin, May 9, 2013.

9.  Quartet movement in G major, Rondo, by Alma Deutscher (8 yrs). (5:32)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXLSNOPuZhM
Crans-Montana Classics Festival, Switzerland, 17.8.2013. New Russian Quartet and Alma Deutscher.

10.  Dance of the Solent Mermaids. (8.02)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITowZi3AMwI
Dance of the Solent Mermaids, symphonic movement by Alma Deutscher. Israel Philharmonic Orchestra 1.6.2015. Commissioned as a string quartet by the Solent Music Festival and its artistic director/pianist Sam Haywood. The piece was performed by the Endellion String Quartet during the 2014 Solent Music Festival. Alma subsequently revised the piece and orchestrated it, and it premiered as a symphonic movement in January 2015.