A Musical Prodigy? Sure, but Don’t Call Her ‘a New Mozart’ By Melissa Eddy
New York Times
June 14, 2019
VIENNA — Alma Deutscher has not yet become a household name, but it seems only a matter of time.
An accomplished pianist and violinist, she is also a composer, having written concertos for piano and violin and an opera. In December, she will make her debut at Carnegie Hall, where she will play the solo violin and piano in her two concertos, while the orchestra will play selections from her opera and her most recent work, a Viennese waltz. Next month, she will record a retrospective album with Sony of piano melodies she composed going back to when she was just 4 years old.
Which, as a matter of fact, isn’t all that long ago, because Alma Deutscher, who has been called by some “a new Mozart,” is 14.
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Born in 2005, Ms. Deutscher spent her first five years in Oxford, England, where her mother was teaching. While her parents were academics, they also loved music and would play together as a family, with her mother, Janie, on the piano and her father, Guy, on the flute. But Ms. Deutscher’s ability rapidly surpassed that of her parents.
She received her first violin at age 3, and left her first teacher on the instrument begging to take a break after more than an hour. At 4 she would sit for hours at the piano, working out melodies she said were songs from the imaginary world she called Transylvanian. Recognizing his daughter’s extraordinary abilities, Mr. Deutscher tried to find a teacher willing to work with a preschool composer, but most turned him down. “They would say to call back in 10 years — that was those who were being polite,” he said.
As Alma’s renown spread, the Deutschers gave up their teaching jobs and moved to Dorking, in Surrey, and devoted themselves to managing her schedule. These days, Mr. Deutscher said, there are so many people who want to work with his daughter that he spends a lot of his time fending them off. Having realized that no school would be able to meet Alma’s special needs as a budding musician and composer, her mother began home schooling her and her sister Helen, now 11. Mr. Deutscher has managed to keep one foot in the academic world, writing books on his specialty, linguistics.
They are selective with her performance schedule, which last year included concerts in China, Germany and Switzerland, as well as several in Austria, where Ms. Deutscher has been embraced and celebrated for years. After spending months in 2016 in Vienna for rehearsals of her opera, “Cinderella,” the family decided last year to move, so the girls could learn German and Alma could indulge in the wide range of musical opportunities the city offered.
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