Matt Haimovitz is 42 and a world-renowned cellist. Today, our colleague David Greene introduces us to another music prodigy, only this one is all grown up and has dealt with the challenges that come with having extraordinary talent at such a young age. "But if you say, 'You're terrifically musical, and you're going to have a wonderfully musical life,' that's a very different kind of message to give to kids, and a much more positive one."Įarlier this week, we met piano prodigy Emily Bear, who, at 12 years old, has written more than 350 songs, recorded six albums, and performed at Carnegie Hall. You're going to be a genius when you grow up. "I think it all has to do with how many expectations were put on you as a child: You're a genius. Winner says that it's often the adults in a prodigy's childhood who determine how they'll fare when they grow up. But those moments when I am in the car and I happen to hear an old broadcast or recording, occasionally I am struck and say, 'Wow, I did some good things back then,' " he says. "I rarely look back, honestly, because there's so much going on in the present and the future.
#Average music prodigy practice time full#
He has a very full life â a wife, two children and music. Haimovitz says he's been able to navigate all of this. It's also hard for prodigies to grow up and suddenly not be so special, she says. "That's a very different skill, and most prodigies do not make that leap." But adult creators actually do something in a new way. "The skill of being a child prodigy is the skill of mastering something that's already been invented â whether it's Western math, classical music or realistic drawing," Winner says. Winner says as prodigies grow up, they struggle to advance their talents. What Haimovitz did may have been exceptional, even for a prodigy.
I wanted to know more," he says.īow in hand, he even took a stab at Led Zeppelin. But once I was exposed to Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and others, I couldn't really turn back. "My teacher, Leonard Rose, we never played any 20th century music. So he took his cello into punk rock clubs and coffeehouses. "When you start that early, you suddenly start to grow up in public, and I wanted to experiment," Haimovitz says. He wanted to play other kinds of music but felt constricted by the image and the expectations of the boy prodigy who played classical music and filled concert halls. But certainly in terms of friendships, they've been few and intense."Īs Haimovitz got older, his friendship with his best friend â his music â began to change. But I didn't feel like I was missing anything because this is what I wanted," he says. I would at the time practice four or five hours a day, and I'd have to get my homework done. "On the other hand, they also long to connect with other kids, and they can't find other kids like themselves."įor his part, Haimovitz says he didn't have many friends as a child, mainly because he was so focused on the music. Gifted children are more likely to be introverted, Winner says, and spend more time alone.
"They feel like they can't find other kids like themselves, so they feel kind of weird, maybe even like a freak, and feel like don't have anybody to connect with." "If a child suddenly at age 3 goes to the piano and picks out a tune and does it beautifully, that has to be because that child has a different brain."Ĭhildren who are extremely gifted tend to be socially different, too, Winner says. "But I believe that anything that shows up so early, without training, has got to be either a genetic or some other biological basis," Winner says. It's not clear whether a prodigy's brain is any different from the brain of other children, in part because there have been no studies comparing the brains of prodigies with those of average people. You will see parents who say, 'I wasn't like this my husband wasn't like this.' It seems to sometimes just come out of the blue," Winner says. "People are fascinated by these children because they don't understand where it came from. And that's typical, Ellen Winner, a psychology professor at Boston College who has studied prodigies, tells NPR's David Greene. My mother is a pianist and took me to many concerts."īut nothing in his family history explains where Haimovitz got his extraordinary talent. "I grew up with a lot of classical music in the household.
So it was pretty meteoric," Haimovitz says. "By the time I was 12, 13 years old I was on the road playing with Israel Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and some of the great orchestras. He rushed into the classical music scene at age 10 after Itzhak Perlman, the famed violinist, heard him play.