Alma Deutscher

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Alma Elizabeth Deutscher
File:Alma-album-1.jpg
Born 2005
Residence Dorking, England
Occupation Composer, pianist and violinist
Known for Child prodigy; music composition
Parent(s) Guy Deutscher, Janie Steen
Website www.almadeutscher.com
Music
Genres Classical
Occupation(s) Musician, composer
Instruments Piano and violin
Years active 2007–present
Labels Flara Records

Alma Elizabeth Deutscher (born 2005) is an English composer, pianist, violinist and child prodigy. At age six she composed her first piano sonata. At age seven, she completed her first major composition, the opera The Sweeper of Dreams. Aged nine, she wrote a concerto for violin and orchestra, which she premiered herself in 2015.[1] Aged 10 she completed her first full-length opera, Cinderella, which will have its European premiere in Vienna in December 2016, under the patronage of conductor Zubin Mehta.[2][3]

Background

Deutscher is the daughter of Janie Steen and the linguist Guy Deutscher.[4]

She began playing piano at the age of two, followed by violin at three. At four she was composing and improvising on the piano, and by five had begun writing down her compositions. These first written notations were unclear, but by six she could write clear compositions by hand and had composed her first piano sonata. At seven she composed her first short opera, at nine a violin concerto, and her first full-length opera aged ten.[5][6]

According to her father, she could name the notes on a piano when she was two. "For her third birthday I bought her a little violin as a toy. She was so excited by it and tried playing on it for days on end, so we decided to try to find her a teacher. Within less than a year she was playing Handel sonatas."[7][8]

In a 2007 interview with the BBC, Steen said: “At three she heard a lullaby by Richard Strauss, and she came to us and said, '...how can music be so beautiful?' She was struck by the beauty of it."[9]

Discovery

Deutscher’s initial media exposure can be traced to writer and comedian Stephen Fry publicising her YouTube channel when she was seven. Guy Deutscher and Fry knew each other through a shared interest in linguistics. Deutscher's channel was originally produced for the private viewing of her relatives. Her father said: “Then Stephen Fry saw [her family videos] and tweeted on Twitter, and that's how it became known to his millions of followers. And from there very quickly reporters were onto it and it snowballed.” Fry wrote: "Simply mind-blowing: Alma Deutscher playing her own compositions. A new Mozart?", with a link to one of Deutscher's videos.[10] Television crews arrived at the family home the next day. Guy Deutscher spoke of his concerns surrounding Alma’s initial press coverage and explained that the family had been unprepared for the intense exposure, and that they view as their most important task to protect her and ensure that she has a happy childhood.[6]

Operas

The Sweeper of Dreams (2012)

Deutscher's first completed opera is a short work based on Neil Gaiman's story "The Sweeper of Dreams", with the text adapted from a libretto by Elizabeth Adlington.[11] It was submitted to a contest run by the English National Opera, where it narrowly failed to make it to the final.[7][8][12] Parts of the score came to Deutscher in a dream.[13] The opera was first performed in Israel in 2013.[14]

In the story, the Sweeper of Dreams can no longer do his job, having been drinking on his shifts. His employer advertises for a replacement. A sixteen-year-old girl named Alex T Strumm applies. Her interviewers mock her, having been surprised to find she is not a man. Alex sets out to prove her suitability and eventually is hired.

Deutscher has said she prefers stories about girls overcoming adversity: in The Sweeper of Dreams the main character "...committed two terrible crimes: the first was being a child, the second was being female. But despite that, she manages to triumph in the end."[15]

Cinderella (2015)

Deutscher's second opera is a full-length work based on the fairy-tale of Cinderella. In an interview with German newspaper Die Zeit, she explained that she had started working on the opera in 2013. It was finished two years later, and performed for the first time in July 2015. She finished writing the overture to the opera "just a few days before the performance".[16] Deutscher explained that her version of the story differs considerably from the traditional fairy-tale, mainly because it revolves around music, and music is a central part of the plot. It is set in an opera production company run by the Evil Stepmother; the stock characters of the two step-sisters are portrayed as talentless divas. Cinderella is not allowed to perform, but she is a natural composer, with "beautiful melodies springing into her head".[17] The prince is a poet, and Cinderella chances upon a captivating love poem, which unbeknown to her was written by the prince. She is inspired by the poem and sets it to her own music. Her melody is then stolen by her step-sisters and sung at a singing competition during the Ball. However, finally Cinderella herself sings her melody to the prince, unaware that he wrote the words. The prince is also unaware that the singer composed the enchanting music to his lyrics. After Cinderella flees from the ball at midnight, the prince searches for Cinderella not using a glass slipper, as in the traditional fairy-tale, but using a melody. The pair are eventually united: “In the end, they find each other like lyrics find melody".[15] Deutscher explained: "I didn't want Cinderella just to be pretty. I wanted her to have her own mind and her own spirit. And to be a little bit like me. So I decided that she would be a composer."

The opera Cinderella was staged in Israel in July 2015.[18] Deutscher also sang an aria from the opera during her performance at Google Zeitgeist in 2015."[15] In December 2016, the full version of the opera will have its world premiere in Vienna, with conductor Zubin Mehta as patron.[2]

Compositional method

Deutscher's compositions are said to arrive "...unbidden and fully formed".[19] As she told the Daily Mail: "The music comes to me when I'm relaxing. I go and sit down on a seat or lie down. I like thinking about fairies a lot, and princesses, and beautiful dresses."[20] At Google Zeitgeist, she explained: "When I try to get a melody it never comes to me. It usually comes to me either when I'm resting or when I'm just sitting at the piano improvising, or when I'm skipping with my skipping rope. Or even when I'm trying to do something else, when somebody is talking to me or I'm trying to do something, then I hear this beautiful melody."[15]

Deutscher has described her purple skipping rope as 'magical' and a key part of her composition process: "I wave it around, and melodies pour into my head"[5] A 2015 interview with BBC News showed Deutscher waving the rope in the garden of her family home and singing an improvised melody.[21] Melodies also come to Deutscher in her dreams, in common with other classical compositions such as Tartini’s Sonate du Diable. Describing one such dream-composition, the themes for a set of piano variations in E-flat, Deutscher said: "I woke up and I didn’t want to lose the melodies so I took my notebook and wrote it all down, which took almost three hours. My parents didn’t understand why I was so tired in the morning and didn’t want to get up.”[19] She sleeps with a tape recorder by her bed.[22] Sections of her first opera, The Sweeper of Dreams, also came to her fully formed in a dream.[23] Deutscher is also said to draw inspiration from an imaginary country called Transylvanian: "I made up my own land with its own language and there are beautiful composers there, named Antonin Yellowsink and Ashy and Shell and Flara".

Deutscher has explained that her seemingly spontaneous style of composition obscures the harder work involved in creating larger and complex compositions, where the idea or initial melody is only the first part of a much longer process. At Google Zeitgeist, she explained: "Lots of people think that the difficult part of composing is to get the ideas, but actually that just comes to me. The difficult bit is then to sit down with that idea, to develop it, to combine it with other ideas in a coherent way. Because it’s very easy to throw a soup of lots of ideas which don't make any sense together. But to sit down and develop and combine it, and afterwards to tweak it and to polish it - that takes ages..."[15][24] In addition, her father explained in an interview with Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Alma's inspiration is underlined by her extensive knowledge of harmony. He gave an example of a passage from a Haydn sonata she was playing at the time, stating that most listeners would have found the piece beautiful but mysterious, but for Alma the same piece was an 'open book' of familiar harmonic progressions.[6]

Critical reception

Much of the initial critical response to Deutscher's compositions and recitals centred on her age and status as a child prodigy. Commenting on the public perception of child prodigies and their musical output, Deutscher has said "….I want my music to be taken seriously….and sometimes it's a little bit difficult for people to take me seriously because I'm just a little girl." [15]

More recent responses have focused on Deutscher’s compositions and performances. According to the Guardian newspaper, conductor Simon Rattle declared himself to be "absolutely bowled over" by her.[25] The conductor Zubin Mehta has named Deutscher as one of his choices of young musicians to watch: "She came last year to my concert where we did Fledermaus … she'd [never heard the opera before] but afterwards she gave me comments that only an educated grown-up musician could have made."[26]

The pianist and pedagogue Arie Vardi described his first meeting with Deutscher: "People had said that she was a prodigy, but usually I'm a little sceptical about this term, sceptical both about those who bestow this title and those on which it is bestowed.… Although I had reservations, from the moment I actually met this girl in the corridor and she said 'hello' - it was impossible not to love her. ...I have a feeling that with Alma the wonder will not be lost, because she has such wide horizons."

The German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter wrote that “it is absolutely extraordinary what this young girl has managed to achieve on the violin, the piano, and in her compositions. Her musical sensitivity and her powers of expression already at this age underline her exceptional talent.”[27]

The composer and musicologist Ron Weidberg said of Deutscher's melodies: "Alma’s most important talent is the perfect connection between her inner world and the melodies she creates, which are so beautiful because they stem directly from this inner world. Few composers can write such tunes, which from the first moment are immediately impressed upon our memory, and thus turn into the possession of all those who listen to them. Alma is one of these composers, and this is why we are confident that the melodies she is writing now will remain with us even when we ourselves no longer remain the same as we were."[28]

Since 2010 Deutscher’s official YouTube channel has gathered over 2.5m views and has over 15,000 subscribers.

Comparison to Mozart

Deutscher has been compared to Mozart repeatedly, although she rejects the comparison, stating that "if I just wrote everything Mozart wrote again, it would be boring. I want to be Alma, not Mozart." Her family do not encourage the comparison, her father stating that "...there was one Mozart in human history", and that he does not want his daughter to feel burdened by being compared to other composers.[6][29][30]

When asked about her musical idols, Deutscher cited the composers Mozart, Schubert and Tchaikovsky.

Education and home life

Deutscher lives with her parents in Dorking, Surrey, England.

She is home-schooled. She was registered for school at the age of five and attended an orientation day, but reported feeling bored, upset and untutored.[6] Asked if she would like to go to school in future, she replied: "I never want to go to school. I have to go outside and get fresh air, and read."[31]

Deutscher is reported to spend up to five hours a day composing, practising and listening to music. She attends various activities and outings with other homeschooling families. Her younger sister, Helen, and most of her friends are also home-schooled. Her parents believe that Deutscher’s creativity is innate but requires nurturing. That belief, combined with the long school days in England led them to homeschooling.[6][32] Her father has also expressed his reluctance for Alma to learn music via the traditional English method of exams and mechanical learning. Instead her musical education focuses on composition and improvisation, as described by Robert Gjerdingen's analysis of methods common to teaching music to children in 18th century Italy, as described in his book Music in the Galant Style.[32][33]

Alma receives instruction in piano and violin from teachers at the Yehudi Menuhin School in Surrey. She also receives lessons in improvisation from Tobias Cramm, a musician based in Switzerland, via Skype, with the pair utilising the pedagogical method of the 18th century Italian partimenti,[34] a form of linear guide for the improvisation of a keyboard piece.[35]

Her father has said that she doesn’t have one regular composition teacher, rather that "...there are good-hearted experts who help her sporadically and there’s a lot of self-teaching.”[6][32]

In 2010 Guy Deutscher characterised Alma's musical creativity as a central part of her imagination.[6] In her first years of life, Alma was the subject of her father's language experiments related to his professional research.[36] As reported in The Nation he made sure never to tell her the sky was "blue", in an effort to understand why ancient cultures never used this term for the sky. Her perceptions, especially calling the clear sky "white" were reported in Guy Deutscher's 2010 book Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages.

Performances

Deutscher has played as a soloist - both as a violinist and pianist - with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Oviedo Filarmonia and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

She has said that she thrives on performing music, particularly before an audience.[6] Her parents are reported to limit her performances, selecting opportunities to perform that they consider the most enjoyable and helpful for her.[14] She has performed on television shows including NBC,[29] The Ellen DeGeneres Show[5] and Intermezzo with Arik.[35] She has given recitals and public performances in multiple countries, including Switzerland, Italy, Japan, Uruguay, Israel,[37] England,[38] and Germany.[39]

Some of her performances have been financially supported by the London-based entrepreneur David Giampaolo.[40] In January 2016 it was announced that Alma Deutscher was signed by London Classical Music artist agency Askonas Holt.[17][41]

Intermezzo with Arik

In 2014 Deutscher gave an extended appearance on Intermezzo with Arik, the Israel Educational Television programme presented by the pianist, conductor and piano pedagogue Prof. Arie Vardi.

Deutscher performed an on-the-spot improvisation around musical notes presented to her at random. Conversing in both English and Hebrew, Deutscher was asked by Vardi whether she improvised using "...the head or the fingers?"; Deutscher explained that she improvises melodies and harmonies in her head, sometimes unintentionally, such as when conversing with others.

Vardi also asked whether Deutscher felt free to break musical rules; she answered that she stays within them, referencing the Galant composers and their adherence to established musical form.[35]

The show traditionally asks its guests to select a piece to perform from a composer of their choice; Deutscher opted for the German composer Eduard Marxsen, who was the teacher of young Johannes Brahms, and whom Vardi said he'd "never heard of". Deutscher explained that she felt sorry for Marxsen as a long-forgotten composer. After listening to Deutscher perform a sonata by Domenico Scarlatti, Vardi commented that she played Scarlatti's music as though she had written it herself.

Compositions

  • Sonata in E-flat for piano, aged 6[42]
  • Andante for Violin, aged 6[43]
  • Rondino (trio) in E♭ for violin, viola and piano, aged 7[44]
  • The Sweeper of Dreams (opera), aged 7[45]
  • Quartet movement in A major, aged 7[46]
  • Sonata for viola and piano in C minor (1st movement), aged 8[47]
  • Quartet movement in G major, Rondo, aged 8[48]
  • "The Night Before Christmas", song to words by C. Moore, aged 8[49]
  • Two songs from Cinderella: "If I Believe in Love", and "Reverie", aged 8[50]
  • Sonata for violin and piano (1st movement), aged 8[51]
  • Trio for violin, viola, and piano, aged 9[52]
  • Concerto for violin and orchestra in G, aged 9[53]
  • Dance of the Solent Mermaids, for symphony orchestra, aged 9[54]
  • Cinderella, a full-length opera, aged 10[18]

Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, Deutscher recorded a short piano improvisation dedicated to the people of France, Impromptu for Paris, based on the anti-war song Göttingen of the French singer Barbara said to have aided French-German reconciliation after WWII.[55][56]

Discography

Title Album details
The Music of Alma Deutscher
  • Released: 2013
  • Label: Flara Records
  • Formats: CD, digital download
Two Songs from Cinderella
  • Released: 2013
  • Label: Flara Records.
  • Formats: CD, digital download

References

  1. ↑ "Concerto for violin and orchestra in G",. Retrieved 04 February 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Cinderella, a full-length opera by Alma Deutscher. Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 James Lachno, "Is Alma Deutscher the new Mozart?", The Telegraph, 12 October 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Simon Usborne, "Composing an opera? It's just child's play, says Britain's newest classical music prodigy", The Independent, 12 October 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ "The Sweeper of Dreams – by Alma Deutscher". Mini Operas. Archive.org copy of 21 October 2012.
  12. ↑ "Alma Deutscher: Biography", Last.fm. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Interview in newspaper Die Zeit, 7 Jan 2016.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 10 year old music prodigy becomes youngest signed to agent; accessed 10 Jan 2016.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Cinderella, an opera by Alma Deutscher (youtube). Retrieved 29 July 2015.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ John Stevens, "Meet Little Miss Mozart: The miniature musician aged seven who has composed her own opera", Mail Online, 21 October 2012. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Alma Deutscher, the 10-year-old who is making the music world listen, Retrieved 05 Feb 2016.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Dr Ron Weidberg, composer and musicologist, on Alma’s compositions, Retrieved 20 Jan 2016.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 32.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ Robert Gjerdingen's partimento page. Retrieved 2 Jan 2016.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Askonas Holt; accessed 10 Jan 2016.
  42. ↑ "Sonata in E-flat by Alma Deutscher (aged 6), II-Fantasia (composed October 2011)", YouTube. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  43. ↑ "Andante for Violin by Alma Deutscher (aged 6). Recorded: May 2011", YouTube. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
  44. ↑ "Rondino (trio) for violin, viola and piano, by Alma Deutscher (7).", YouTube. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  45. ↑ "The Sweeper of Dreams, an opera by Alma Deutscher (7)", YouTube. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  46. ↑ "Quartet movement in A major, aged 7". Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  47. ↑ "Sonata for viola and piano in C minor (1st movement), aged 8". Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  48. ↑ "Quartet movement in G major, aged 8". Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  49. ↑ "The Night Before Christmas, song to words by C. Moore, aged 8". Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  50. ↑ "Two songs from Cinderella: If I believe in love, and Reverie, aged 8". Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  51. ↑ "Sonata for violin and piano (1st movement), aged 8". Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  52. ↑ "Trio for violin, viola, and piano, aged 9". Retrieved 04 February 2015.
  53. ↑ "Concerto for violin and orchestra in G, aged 9". Retrieved 04 February 2015.
  54. ↑ "Dance of the Solent Mermaids, for symphony orchestra, aged 9". Retrieved 04 February 2015.
  55. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  56. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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