List of child music prodigies

A child prodigy is defined in psychology research literature as a person under the age of ten who produces meaningful output in some domain to the level of an adult expert performer. This is a list of young children who displayed a talent in music deemed to make them competitive with skilled adult musicians. The list is sorted by instrument.

Classical

Composing

Name	Born	Talent	Age of first composition	Notes
Kit Armstrong	1992	Piano	5	Composed seriously from the age of 6. First symphony at age 10.
Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga	1806	Composer	9	Wrote opera Los esclavos felices at age 14 and over 100 works before he died at age 19. Was praised as a student of Cherubini.
Samuel Barber	1910	Composer, conductor	7	Attempted an opera at age ten; attended the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen
Ferruccio Busoni	1866	Pianist, composer, conductor, editor, writer, and educator	7	Started composing prolifically at age 7. Composed his Concerto for Piano and String Quartet at age 11.
Frédéric Chopin	1810	Composer	7	Began concerts and polonaises at age seven; attained notability by age fifteen
Pio Cianchettini	1799	Composer, pianist	6	Composed prolifically for the piano, performing a concerto of own composition in London in 1809 when he was 10. Edited Beethoven’s works for British publishers.
Max Darewski	1894	Composer, pianist, conductor	5	Composed the waltz Le Rêve, aged 5. Conducted the massed bands numbering five thousand at Crystal Palace, aged 9.
Alma Deutscher	2005	Composer, pianist, violinist	5	Composed first piano sonata at age six, first violin concerto at age nine, and first full-length opera, Cinderella, at age ten.
George Enescu	1881	Composer	5	First compositions around age 5 and wrote large scale work, including four study symphonies in his youth.
Morton Gould	1913	Composer, conductor, pianist	6
Jay Greenberg	1991	Composer	6	Entered the Juilliard school's pre-college at age 10; first symphony at age 11
Evgeny Kissin	1971	Pianist, composer	6	Started composing significant output at age 7 including early work, Petrushka.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold	1897	Composer, conductor	7	Started composing at age 7. Wrote cantata and first ballet, ‘Der Schneemann’ at age 11. Piano sonata no.2 played by Artur Schnabel at 13; opera at 17.
Franz Liszt	1811	Composer, pianist, conductor, teacher	9	Was the only child composer to write for a set of Diabelli variations at age 11, and composed opera, Don Sanche, at age 13.
André Mathieu	1929	Composer, pianist	4	Wrote etudes and other works at age 4; piano concertino at age 7 performed with orchestra.
Felix Mendelssohn	1809	Composer, conductor	11	Composed 13 string symphonies from ages 12–14 and opera in his preteens. Also composed masterpieces like his A Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture and Octet in his later teens.
Gian Carlo Menotti	1911	Composer, librettist, playwright, director	7	Started composing at 7; composed first opera at age eleven
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	1756	Composer	4	Wrote 25 symphonies, 8-9 operas and various concerti, vocal, and solo work before adulthood. At age 4 his first compositions were Andante (K. 1a) and Allegro. (K. 1b)
Émile Naoumoff	1962	Pianist, composer	6	Began studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris at the age of 8. His first piano concerto was conducted under Yehudi Menuhin with the composer at the piano when he was aged 10.
Dika Newlin	1923	Composer	8	At the age of 8, she wrote a symphonic piece, Cradle Song, that was added to the repertoire of Cincinnati orchestra conductor Vladimir Bakaleinikoff and performed three years later by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Frederick Ouseley	1825	Composer, organist, musicologist and priest	3	Wrote first composition age the age of 3 years and 3 months, possibly the youngest to ever compose a cohesive musical work. Wrote 2 operas by age 8, including L'Isola disabitata. Composed nearly 300 pieces by age 16.
Alex Prior	1992	Composer, conductor	8	By his early teens had written symphonies, concertos, two ballets, two operas, and a requiem for the children of Beslan.
Sergei Prokofiev	1891	Composer, pianist, and conductor	5	Composed first piano piece at age 5. First operetta, The Giant, composed at age 9 along with several other short operas.
Sergei Rachmaninoff	1873	Composer, pianist	11	First pieces from age 11+ show remarkable craft; Piano Concerto No.1, composed from age 17-18.
Nino Rota	1911	Composer	8	First piano composition at age eight; attended Milan Conservatory at age 13; first oratorio performed publicly at age eleven and composed opera, Il Principe Porcaro, at age 13
Camille Saint-Saëns	1835	Composer, organist, conductor, and pianist	3	Wrote first pieces at age 3.
Clara Schumann	1819	Pianist, composer, piano teacher		Composed Four Polonaises at age 10, piano sonata at age 13, and premiered her Piano Concerto.
Julian Scriabin	1908			Composed 4 preludes in the style of his father before he died at the age of 11.
Richard Strauss	1864	Composer, conductor	6	Composed his first song Weihnachtslied aged 6. Composed Winterreise and other songs aged 7. His first orchestral composition, an overture to the singspiel Hochlands Treue was composed in 1872/73.
Blind Tom Wiggins	1849	Composer, pianist	4	Composed music from the age 4-5 including pieces like ‘The Rainstorm’ He and was able to memorize entire speeches with nuances.

Conducting

Name	Born	Talent	Debut	Notes
	1939	Conductor	8	Made his United States debut conducting a professional orchestra in Carnegie Hall.
Willy Ferrero	1906	Conductor, composer	4	First conducting appearance in Paris at the age of four, attended by Jules Massenet. At the age of seven, conducted an orchestra of 150 instruments at the Augusteum in Rome, an auditorium seating 5,000.
Lorin Maazel	1930	Conductor	8	Began conducting at age 7, studying under Vladimir Bakaleinikov and made debut at age 8. He conducted the National High School Orchestra at Interlochen Center for the Arts and subsequently the New York World's Fair.