my joy was short lived. it was sold out. i am still asking my company's concierge to get any seat if there is cancellation. I am sooooooooo disappointed.

Too bad it didn't work out. I hope you can still get lucky and get a seat. That would be a memorable experience.

I can't wait until my kid is old enough to sit through something like this. There are quite a few pianists that I long to hear in concert.

Thank you. I will report back here if a happy miracle happens that I wind up with a ticket after all.

I am definitely envious of the support that prodigies, or even talented young people who are not technically "prodigies", receive. I read so many artist bios where the family (or part of it) moved to be closer to the child's teacher or give them more opportunities. My parents would have never considered something like this.

Sadly in the US if a child or young person excels in sports families seem willing to bend over backwards to give them opportunities. Everyone seems to understand that. Of course, schools and other institutions are happy to help because they want the glory and reputation of having a winning sports department.

I would have been happy with just a decent instrument, and parents who understood what practicing was (that it wasn't just playing...they hated listening to me practice).

I know many young people hate the pressure to excel at piano but I would be thrilled if I had the time and space to focus on my piano, and the opportunities many gifted young people have. Instead of shoehorning a few minutes of practice in between work and cooking and cleaning...with a piano that sits right next to the TV. SIGH (self pity)

I read a bio earlier today where the girl started at the age of 2 and at age 4 was performing a Haydn Concerto with an orchestra. Seriously??? Wow.

Sorry for reviving this thread but I'd like to share my opinion.

I don't envy these little children at all. They play the piano very well. So what? The little boy from the video "Imagine being a concert pianist part II" is an amazing pianist. However, all I see in him is a guy who has health and social issues - he doesn't seem to spend enough time playing sports or performing whatever physical activity and seems preoccupied with the piano - exercising 8 hours a day, 6 days a week, and attending a lesson on Sundays. And, as it was already pointed out, only a fraction of a hundredth of a percent of those talented kids make it to the concert hall. So, chances are high that boy will grow up with nothing.

As a kid I never showed interest to exercise on the violin or the piano for longer than an hour a day but my cousin had very ambitious parents who made him go through a similar experience as the boy in the video. He used to have 3 hour warming up before piano lessons and then the lesson itself lasted for other 3 hours. At one moment he got fed up with everything and escaped from his home. Years later, he switched to keyboards and synthesizers (now he is a music producer) - at least he stayed in the field of music.

There is another extreme example concerning one of my father's friends who has exercised on the piano for ~10 hours a day throughout her life - she ended up without having children, her entire life was dedicated to piano playing. She plays Debussy and Satie very well, though. She has even won a competition in performing Debussy.

Emily Bear? Well, she is kind of special. She's got a lot of media attention and is current. Until the next child-prodigy has been discovered. When the media attention shifts from her to someone else she will return to the obscurity and fight to become a performing pianist in the same way the rest of the kids do.

I am sorry about being so negative but I have seen it with my eyes. You exercise 8 hours a day, hone your craft and in the next moment you're asking yourself why you do this because someone else who can't even read sheet music becomes world famous. You know I'm talking about the Beatles.

i do feel envious.. my parents never had the money for any sort of musical instrument. instead of music i had art and fencing pushed on me. i HATED fencing.. my dad made me do it because *he* thought i looked cool doing it. my school music teachers would call home all the time to tell my parents that they should get me into real music lessons (regular music classes in elementary school were all about singing and i had a freakish opera voice back then).. but no.. music lessons just cost more than art and fencing classes.. i would have practiced, i really did love music class, it was my favorite class at school..

so yeah, im envious. im always envious when younger people are better than me.. but then again i also get much more jealous when i see young people healthier than me.. i cant run or jump or dance because of my health.. and it annoys me to no end when people can.. its like they are taunting me..

anyway, you cant pick your parents.. so there is no sense being jealous anyway..

As a child all I wanted to do was play sports football, baseball, and basketball. Had music lessons been thrust upon me I would not be an adult beginner, instead I'd probably avoid the piano like plague. I don't feel envy or regret when I see these child performances, I marvel at them. Don't let them aggravate you! Life's too short play for pleasure, play from the heart, and always keep playing.

After re-reading this thread I stand by my statement and repeat it here for emphasis - shall we all agree then to voluntarily ban or shun all future videos of "child prodigies" as being irrelevant and uninspiring and a needless distraction from the concentration and dedication we require to achieve our pianistic goals as adults?

After all this is the Adult Beginners Forum and there is enough incredible adult talent here to serve as all the motivation and inspiration one could ever possibly need.

Trap

Maybe I'm part of a minority perspective, but I think that there's nothing wrong with viewing child prodigies, like adult virtuosos, as relevant ("We're both playing music!"), inspiring ("So this is how Chopin can sound like..."), and motivating ("Maybe I can attain a fraction of this playing one day!").

TJ/JF, I agree with prettymuch all you have to say here except the "ban" future videos. I don't see any need for bans.

I agree with "shun" to some extent - as a personal option. I don't really want to spend too much time watching them. One or two can be interesting once in a while, but most of the ones I have seen have been very mechanical. Fast, fluid - but mechanical and not emotionally involving.

And while I can be impressed with kids who play well, I'm not at all sure I'd call all or even a significant number of them prodigies.

There are 3 definitions of prodigy - the one that applies to this context is "1.A person, esp. a young one, endowed with exceptional qualities or abilities".
My question is: with more and more and more kids popping up being able to play really well at a really young age, are they really prodigies or just having the (sometimes questionable) "benefit" of a lot of training?

What I agree with 100% is that in the ABF recitals we have a stunning range of performers , styles and skills presented by ADULT learnings - which is extremely meaningful and inspirational for me. I figure if other folks who started at 50+ can make such great strides in 5-10 years, I'm in the right club.

There's nothing "wrong" with it, but it's totally unnecessary - like I said, we have all the adult talent we need - watching these snot-nosed little brats (he said affectionately) is much like rubber-necking at a traffic accident or peaking under the tent at a freak show - after you've seen a couple the novelty wears off and it's time to move on to the real world...

Trap (aka Grumpy Grandpa)

I LOVE to hear and see good music performed by anyone, doesn't matter what age.

I am not jealous of any of them, I just enjoy them and am happy for them that they can do it. I makes me smile.

I play for myself and whatever meager level I'm at makes me smile too.

I make no attempt to analyze their lives, or their parents motives, or their motivations, or anything about them. Why? Because I don't know them and anything anyone comes up with, including me, is just speculation or maybe sour grapes.

So, in my opinion, anyone should feel free to post any links that they feel they'd like to share. If anyone does not want to look at them, then don't, but don't ban anyone from posting any links they like (well, I guess they should at least be music related in some way).

So, post away and please don't feel jealousy, just have fun making music. I think their is a huge percentage of the planet who can't make music at all for various reasons. We are very lucky in the grand scheme of things.

Just play and smile.

Yep. If you feel genuinely jealous of "prodigies," which is often a very loose term that includes just about anyone who plays really well, then .... get a life!

Well, while kidding about the banning, which of course the mods would never do (and which I wouldn't really do if I were a mod), there is much to be said for shunning or boycotting the vids of these prepubescent little munchkins - we've seen them and seen them some more and seen them yet again and again ad infinitum ad nauseum and it's not unique or special or even mildly entertaining anymore - when the world is crawling with piano prodigies there are no longer any piano prodigies - it's now common and ordinary and tiresome - and it's not jealousy at all, which is the easy and wrong explanation - it's irritation and annoyance at the injustice that adult beginners don't get the same attention or recognition, which is much more deserved.

Long live the ABF! Down with precocious little piano playing crumb-crunchers!

Trap (loving grandfather of 18 who'll break their fingers if I ever see them in a "prodigy video" )

I also am not particularly impressed anymore by the young age of these kids. My comment was that I love to see music performed well by anyone (well, almost anyone) and don't care about their age so I welcome links to any good performance.

I love the ABF recital entries by the way and have participated a few times. Pretty darn impressing and fun to listen to.