12 year-old Julliard student Jay Greenberg is being touted as the next Mozart, having already composed five full-length symphonies by the time most of us have barely mastered middle C.
“We are talking about a prodigy of the level of the greatest prodigies in history when it comes to composition,” says Sam Zyman, a composer, Julliard professor and former child prodigy himself. “I am talking about the likes of Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and Saint-Sans…This is an absolute fact. This is objective. This is not a subjective opinion.”
His parents, a linguistic scholar and an Israeli-born painter, are not musicians, but thankfully they encouraged their son when he began “hearing music in his head” at the age of three. The article doesn’t mention whether “Bluejay” (his preferred nickname, as bluejays are “small and loud”) has found time to study for his bar mitzvah in between performing and composing, and we wonder if we will hear the influence of some of the great Jewish composers in his future work.
Go, Bluejay!