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I came across this seven year old young lady quite accidentally on You Tube. I found her fluidity, trills, control and comfort at the keyboard quite astounding for a child. See what you think:

Umi Garrett

If I have to compare her to other prodigies, she is in the bottom. But if compared to normal kids, she is good (note, just good, not much better).

There are soooooo many incredible kids in Youtube. I wonder why she caught your attention?

Well I don't know that I would go quite that far. She certainly has talent and flair, but alas we've been so inundated with -admittedly better- youngsters on YouTube that it's difficult not to get unwillingly and uncomfortably jaded.

My dear, come back in a few years. Who knows where you'll be.

One wonders when some 9 or 10 year old finally cracks the immense -and unwieldy- musical demands of the Busoni or Bartok 2. Unlike Rachmaninov 3 -always open season for prodigies- the hallowed realms of the Busoni and Bartok remain safe, if only because those concertos don't particularly interest youngsters.

Weird, there's another thread about a different young pianist from this same concert.

It's the same kid.

She's playing Rameau in this other clip.

Her playing is quite remarkable for a 7 year old, but as others have noted, there are 6 and 5 year olds on You Tube who are also impressive. And then of course, all the mature professional performers age 8 and higher have to be considered as well. Give Umi Garrett another 6 years and she will have a concerto performance on You Tube with full orchestra, and then will disappear for awhile in a conservatory.

Personally, I'm waiting for the breakthrough performance from a child in utero.

RonaldSteinway asks:
There are soooooo many incredible kids in Youtube. I wonder why she caught your attention?

I think I enumerated the reasons quite specifically in my opening post. The fact that you could state that this kid is at "the bottom" implies you have seen many better seven year olds. Please do post their videos on this thread, as I am highly curious who YOU would put at the top, and why?

Given how often these "prodigy/child genius" threads seem to pop up nowadays, maybe the mods should consider a sticky thread?

These two examples for you to watch...There are many others.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=p7EHL30Tut8&feature=related

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8mo0mbEt9Kc

Why these two are way better than your girl:
1. Different level of musicality.
2. Technically these two are much better than the girl that you praised...

Your girl's touch is way too heavy for the Minute Walts, The coordination between left and right hands is off. Technically and emotionally, she is not there yet to play minute waltz decently.

Now as a teenage pianist, I've grown up with my far share of 'prodigies' as people in my community would call them. What is surprising is many of these young kids lose their interest for piano so easily. It's really saddening because of all the talent they have.

I would give the girl a break already! She's not out to compete with these other Youtube kids who have won national/international competitions.

I would agree that her performance doesn't rate very high among prodigees. But compared to "normal" kids I think your opinion of her playing is way too low. I would say that compared to normal kids she easily rates in the 99th percentile for her age. In fact, normal kids will never have the technique to even attempt the Minute Waltz at any age.

AZN,

I heartily agree.

I do not know why people find it so easy to express harsh criticisms of young people on internet forums. This reflects typical snobbish "eat our young" classical-trained musicians for whom nobody but so-and-so is good enough. Welcome to the dying elitist world of classical piano. Good young people need to be celebrated, not chopped off at the knees.

Anybody remember Derulux? He used to make the same point quite often. Cutting up kids is very unseemly.


Vincent,

Nice Grieg. My son is starting to work on that movement now.

OT, but whatever happened to Derulux? When going through old threads, I always find his posts interesting.

Hi this is Umi's father, just thought i would share this with everyone,
Umi is going to be on the "Ellen DeGeneres Show" scheduled to air on Monday May 18th, she will be performing Liszt "Gnomenregen" at least part of it, due to time limitations it could be no longer than 70 seconds in length. Wish her good luck!

Steve

Perhaps there would be no need for criticism if a child were not lifted to "incredible" or "prodigal" status.

Im happy to say I've tackled that piece as well. It sure is a tough one.

Well, one reason I can sometimes get harsh about these kids is because I think kids should not be shoved into the public spotlight before they are worldly enough to fully aware of the situation they are in, and are in control of it themselves. Anything else is exploitation, and that is what is unseemly. I don't care how it gets rationalized and how much the child seems to enjoy it on the surface, the kid is getting used and manipulated by adults. It happened to me on a small, local scale as a child, so I have some idea of what I am talking about.

If people in internet forums aren't being nice, maybe the answer to that is that they shouldn't even be made aware of these kids. Problem solved.

I agree that this harsh criticsm here is quite uncomely. I would think that a piano community would be encouraging to youngsters who are studying the piano with fervor to become good enough to share their talents with others.

I also listened to the Rameau. I would be proud to be her parent or teacher.

I don't recall that CC2 said she was a prodigy, just sharing that he found a 7 yr old who is doing well.

Umi's Dad - Keep encouraging her and giving her all the opportunities to share her music with others!

RE:
Aimi Kobayashi
Quite exception talent. She has more musicality than most adults who play this piece!

KIT ARMSTRONG
Another exceptional young artist.

Thank you for sharing all three with us.

WR
RE: "Well, one reason I can sometimes get harsh about these kids is because I think kids should not be shoved into the public spotlight before they are worldly enough to fully aware of the situation they are in, and are in control of it themselves."

Shame on you. You justify getting harsh with a child just because you disagree with their parents? Geeze. Give the kids a break.

Best of luck to her. Please ignore the negative comments here. People often forget they are talking about real people.