Alma Deutscher facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Alma Deutscher
Alma Deutscher in 2022
Born	Alma Elizabeth Deutscher (2005-02-19) 19 February 2005 (age 20) Basingstoke, England
Education	University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Occupation	Composer conductor pianist violinist
Notable work	Cinderella Waltz of the Sirens
Parent(s)	Janie Deutscher (mother) Guy Deutscher (father)

Alma Elizabeth Deutscher (born 19 February 2005) is an amazing young musician from Britain. She is a composer, pianist, violinist, and conductor. Alma was a child prodigy, meaning she showed incredible talent from a very young age. She wrote her first piano sonata (a piece for piano) when she was only five! At seven, she finished a short opera called The Sweeper of Dreams, and by age nine, she had written a violin concerto (a piece for violin and orchestra).

When she was ten, Alma wrote her first full-length opera, Cinderella. This opera was first performed in Vienna, Austria, in 2016, with help from the famous conductor Zubin Mehta. It then had its U.S. premiere a year later. Alma's piano concerto was first performed when she was 12 years old. She has lived in Vienna, Austria, since 2018. In 2019, she performed her own music at Carnegie Hall in New York, which is a very famous concert venue.

Who is Alma Deutscher?

Early Life and Musical Beginnings

Alma Elizabeth Deutscher was born on 19 February 2005, in Basingstoke, England. Her mother is Janie Deutscher, a literary scholar, and her father is Guy Deutscher, who studies languages. Alma also has a younger sister named Helen Clara.

Alma started playing the piano when she was two years old and the violin at three. Her love for music was clear from the very beginning. She could sing perfectly in tune even before she could speak, and she could read music before she could read words! She once said that when she was three, she heard a lullaby by Richard Strauss and wondered, "How could music be so beautiful?" When she received a small violin for her third birthday, she was so excited that her parents found her a teacher. Within a year, she was already playing pieces by Handel.

Growing as a Composer

By age four, Alma was already making up her own music on the piano, which is called improvising. At five, she started writing down her compositions. By six, she could write clear musical pieces and had finished her first piano sonata. When she was seven, she composed her first short opera, The Sweeper of Dreams. At nine, she wrote a violin concerto, and her first full-length opera came when she was ten.

Learning at Home

Alma was taught at home until she was 16. Her parents decided this because they saw how much her "volcanic imagination" and creativity meant to her. They felt that a traditional school might not give her the freedom she needed for her intense creativity. Alma herself said that she never wanted to go to school because she needed to be outside and read. She also felt that she could learn much faster at home.

Alma created an imaginary country called "Transylvanian" with its own language and, most importantly, its own music. She even made up composers from this land, like Antonin Yellowsink and Ashy, each with their own musical style. She would assign her early compositions to these imaginary composers.

Her early music lessons focused on creative improvisation, using an old Italian teaching method called Partimenti. This helped her become very good at the musical style of the 1700s, which she calls her musical "mother tongue."

Gaining Attention

Alma first became known to the public in 2012, when she was seven. The writer and comedian Stephen Fry saw her playing her own music on YouTube and wrote, "Simply mind-blowing: Alma Deutscher playing her own compositions. A new Mozart?" In 2014, a TV show featuring Alma's performances and improvisations caught the eye of important people in classical music, including conductor Zubin Mehta. A video that mixed her music with other sounds also went viral on YouTube.

In 2017, a TV show called CBS-60 Minutes did a special report on Alma, which became very popular and won an Emmy Award.

In 2018, Alma and her family moved to Vienna, Austria. She told The New York Times that Vienna felt like her musical home because she grew up listening to composers like Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, and Haydn, who all lived there.

In 2021, at age 16, Alma was accepted into the conducting program at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She might have been the youngest student ever to join this program, which has trained famous conductors like Zubin Mehta.

Alma can speak three languages: English, German, and Hebrew.

How Does Alma Deutscher Compose Music?

Her Unique Style and Inspiration

Alma Deutscher's music is especially known for its beautiful and rich melodies. An Austrian newspaper called her a "Melodist by High Grace," saying her tunes can show deep sadness or great longing. Alma says that melodies often come to her naturally, sometimes even in her dreams. For example, the beginning of her first short opera, The Sweeper of Dreams, came to her fully formed in a dream.

She also talks about a special "improvising mood" where melodies just "burst from her fingertips." When she was younger, she even thought her "magical" skipping rope helped her find melodies! She would wave it around, and tunes would "pour into her head." Later, she realized it was the special state of mind she got into while waving the rope.

Hard Work Behind the Beauty

While inspiration can come easily, Alma explains that composing a complete and polished piece of music is a lot of hard work. She told the Financial Times that the difficult part is taking those initial ideas and turning them into a "coherent structure."

From a young age, Alma has been determined to write beautiful music and bring melody and harmony back to modern classical music. She believes that if the world is sometimes ugly, music should make it more beautiful, not uglier. She often says, "Melody is the essence of music." She wants to create new music that speaks to people, moves them, comforts them, and entertains them, so that classical music stays alive and doesn't become just old museum pieces.

Alma Deutscher's Operas

The Sweeper of Dreams (2012)

This was Alma's first complete opera, written when she was seven. It's a short work inspired by a story by Neil Gaiman. The story is about a job for a "Sweeper of Dreams" who helps people forget their nightmares. The first performance was in Israel in 2013. In the story, the committee looking for a Sweeper is surprised when the only candidate is a 16-year-old girl named Alex. They mock her for being young and female.

Alma often includes themes of strong women overcoming challenges in her operas. She told The New York Times that she is a "very strong feminist" and is happy to live in a time when girls can develop their talents.

Cinderella (2015–20)

Alma's first full-length opera is based on the classic fairy tale of Cinderella, but with some big changes. In her version, Cinderella is a composer, and the prince is a poet. Instead of a glass slipper, a beautiful melody that Cinderella sings helps the prince find her. Alma felt it was important that Cinderella wasn't just a pretty girl, but someone the prince fell in love with because of her talent.

Alma worked on Cinderella for about five years, from ages nine to fifteen, making many changes and additions. The first version was performed in Israel in 2015 when she was ten. An orchestral version premiered in Vienna the next year, with Zubin Mehta supporting the production. Newspapers worldwide reported on the sold-out shows, and critics were amazed by Alma's orchestral writing and beautiful melodies.

She made more changes for the sold-out U.S. premiere in 2017 at Opera San Jose. Critics praised it as an "opera of astounding wit, craft, and musical beauty." The Vienna State Opera even created its own version for children in 2018 and 2020.

In 2022, Alma made her U.S. debut as a conductor, leading a new performance of her Cinderella opera.

The Emperor's New Waltz (2023)

Alma's second full-length opera, "The Emperor's New Waltz," was specially ordered by the Salzburg State Theatre and premiered there in March 2023. Alma explained that this musical comedy tells a love story between two young people and between two musical worlds: classical music and pop music.

She wanted to write a musical comedy that would appeal to young people who might not usually listen to classical music. She also wanted to playfully make fun of modern classical music that sometimes sounds "tuneless" or like "noise" to many people. Alma wanted to show that opera and musicals are actually very similar. Her dream is for young people to go to a musical and realize that opera was part of it, and it was beautiful!

The story is inspired by "The Emperor's New Clothes." It's about truth and pretending, and how music can bring people together. It follows a gardener named Jonas and a rich heiress named Leonie, who are very different but both dream of studying at a music academy. Leonie's father wants her to marry a famous modern composer, but Leonie disguises herself as a boy to visit the university. There, she meets Jonas, and they discover that the famous composer has some sneaky plans.

Awards and Recognitions

Alma Deutscher has received several important awards:

• In May 2021, she received the Leonardo da Vinci International Award from European Rotary Clubs. At 16, she was the youngest person ever to get this award.
• In October 2019, she was given the European Culture Prize (Young Generation Award) at the Vienna State Opera.
• In October 2019, she also received the Beijing Music Festival Young Artist Award in China.
• In September 2019, the German magazine Stern chose Alma as one of its twelve "Heroes of Tomorrow." At 14, she was the youngest of the group.

Notable Performances and Recordings

Alma has performed her own music as a soloist with famous orchestras around the world. These include the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York. She has also given special concerts of her compositions at major music festivals.

Key Performances

• At age 10, Alma performed at the Google Zeitgeist Conference in 2015, appearing alongside the famous physicist Stephen Hawking.
• In 2017, she performed both her violin concerto and the world premiere of her piano concerto at the Carinthischer Sommer Music Festival in Austria.
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  Alma Deutscher performing her piano concerto in Carnegie Hall, 2019
• Alma's sold-out debut at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2019 was a huge success. Critics called it "a night of increasing musical wonder." The concert featured only her own compositions, including her Violin Concerto and Piano Concerto, which she performed as a soloist. She also played parts of her opera Cinderella and her concert waltz, Waltz of the Sirens. Alma explained her musical ideas to the audience, sharing her goal to bring harmony and beauty back to modern classical music. The concert was streamed live, and a recording of her Waltz of the Sirens has been watched over 2.4 million times on YouTube. A short video of her conducting the waltz also became very popular on TikTok in 2022.

Television Appearances

• In 2017, Alma was the subject of an hour-long BBC documentary that followed her during rehearsals for the premiere of her opera Cinderella in Vienna.
• Also in 2017, she was featured in a CBS-60 Minutes documentary, which won an Emmy Award.
• When she was nine, Alma appeared on a program with the famous pianist Arie Vardi, which helped bring her to the attention of conductor Zubin Mehta.
• She has also appeared on popular TV shows like The Ellen DeGeneres Show and NBC Today.

Recordings and Publications

Alma's first album of her music, "The Music of Alma Deutscher," was released in 2013 when she was eight. In 2019, Sony Classical Records released "From My Book of Melodies," a piano album of her compositions from ages four to fourteen. Two productions of her opera Cinderella have been released on DVD.

Her collection of piano pieces, From My Book of Melodies, was published in 2020 by well-known classical music publishers G. Schirmer and Hal Leonard.

List of Compositions

Operas

• The Sweeper of Dreams (a mini-opera, written at age 7)
• Cinderella, a full-length opera (written at age 10, and performed many times since)
• The Emperor's New Waltz, an opera commissioned by the Salzburg State Theatre, premiered in 2023.

Orchestral Pieces

• Dance of the Solent Mermaids (a symphonic dance)
• Violin Concerto in G minor
• Piano Concerto in E-flat major
• Waltz of the Sirens
• Elmayer Waltz
• Grinzinger Polka

Songs

• The Lonely Pine Tree, a song based on words by H. Heine.
• The Night Before Christmas, a song based on words by C. Moore.
• Near the Beloved, a song based on words by Goethe.
• I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, a Christmas Carol based on a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Chamber Music

• Andante for Violin and piano
• Rondino (trio) in E-flat major for violin, viola, and piano
• Quartet movement in A major (a piano version appeared as Summer in Mondsee)
• Viola Sonata in C minor (first movement)
• Quartet movement in G major, Rondo
• Violin Sonata (first movement)
• Trio for violin, viola, and piano in D major (Cinderella Trio)

Piano Pieces

• Piano Sonata no. 1 in E-flat major
• The Chase (Impromptu in C minor)
• Sixty Minutes Polka
• Ludwig Waltz no. 1
• Ludwig Waltz no. 2
• Piano Sonata no. 2 in E-minor
• Impromptu in D-major "Sea and Mountains"

Educational Music

• "Alma's Piano Songs: an Album for Young Musicians" (a collection of piano pieces for children by Alma Deutscher).

Discography

Images for kids

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  Alma Deutscher performing her violin concerto in Carnegie Hall (December 2019)

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  Alma Deutscher conducts her opera Cinderella in Opera San Jose, 2022

See also

In Spanish: Alma Deutscher para niños