While driving the other day I heard Sir Kenneth Robinson on a TED Talk about creativity in children and of people, in general. When you hear what he has to say, you will understand and become a believer. Sir Kenneth is easily one of the most interesting and intelligent men you will ever hear speak on the subject of Creativity. Please keep in mind…. Music and art has been around for 30,000 years, while agriculture only came into being 10,000 years ago. Do the math and see what’s really important.
Even as a child, this boy was an over-achiever. He composed symphonies and played for royalty by the age of five years old. A court musician by seventeen who went on to achieve little or no financial security, but wrote more than 600 symphony, choral, chamber, and operatic pieces that received critical acclaim. Known as the ‘rock star’ of his time, he influenced the likes of Ludwig Von Beethoven and Joseph Haydn, geniuses in their own right. He, himself, was profoundly influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach and George Friedrich Handel. This was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Today, he is still one of the most revered and most listened to of all classical composer. This is Concerto No#9 in E flat that is moody and serious and uplifting.
This young child started on piano at the age of three years old and was playing at family functions by the age of seven. By the age of 11 years old he was accepted at the Royal academy of Music. One of his instructors praised him for playing a huge Handel musical piece much like a jukebox, it was played so flawlessly after hearing it only once. By 15 he was the house pianist at local pubs and in time became a backing musician for the inimitable, Long John Baldry and even play piano for The Hollies on ‘He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother’. He was known first as, Reginald Kenneth Dwight and lived with his mother until his fame took hold, writing most of the material on his first four albums, until fame took hold. We think of him as, Sir Elton John. I think ‘Madman Across he Water’ is one of my favorites, closely followed by ‘Levon’.
A little boy we know was denied admission to the music conservatory at the age of three years old because the violin was too big for him to hold. Instead, he practiced and learned on a toy violin, until he was big enough to play on the violin proper. The boy contracted polio at the age of four and to this day alternates between crutches and a small scooter. At all performances he remains seated. The lad gave his first recital at the age of ten while a student at both the Conservatory and the Academy of Music, before enrolling at The Julliard School of Music in New York City. His American debut included two performances on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958, then again on the same episode as The Rolling Stones in 1964. As a man, he received an Academy Award for writing the score of ‘Schindler’s List’ and played with Yo-Yo Ma on the theme from ‘Memories of a Geisha’. A faculty post at Brooklyn College, teaching at Julliard School of Music, a principal guest conductor at The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, artistic director and conductor at The Westchester Symphony Orchestra, and the list of accomplishments goes on. Ytzak Perlman, both child prodigy and adult virtuoso, plays a Stradivarius violin from 1714, said to be the best instrument the man ever made in his ‘Golden Period’ of craftsmanship.
Imagine if we had medicated these kids and told them to sit still.
That would be a crime.
Encourage your children to be artistic. Every child is an artist, so don’t box them in….
