Another piano Wunderkind

[Belle]

This time a Russian competition, held just a few days ago. This 10y/o girl is the winner and here is excerpt of her performance of Mendelssohn Concerto #1, conducted by Sladkovsky:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHYX_U--b2Y

Such poise and maturity for a child!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIepg9rmK10

[Holden Fourth]

To put this into perspective, this competition is for pianists under the age of 16. Still, it's amazing to hear a 10 year old play this well.

[Rach3]

It's an unfortunate commentary of the current CM scene and difficulty of making a CM career, and on the little value our societies place on CM and CM education, that there is a need, demand for competitions for those under 16.A society that consumes its children....

[Holden Fourth]

Unfortunately, it's not just confined to CM. As a coach of competitive swimming I see the exact same thing, the parental drive to have their child achieve at the highest possible level at the earliest possible age. I know of one boy who trains eight sessions a week and he's only nine years old. It 's particuLarly infuriating for his parents when one of my swimmers consistently beats him in one stroke with only three sessions per week. The conversation that parent had with the child after yet another second place finish was not very encouraging to say the least. He excels in the other three strokes.

Also stacked against him is a phrase we coaches use when seeing this happe so soon in a child's life - "early ripe, early rotten".

Gymnastics, academic excellence, most team sports all have this small coterie of parents who get their sense of achievement vicariously through the exploits (and exploitation) of their children.