We had another pitch-black national news day here, with a church shooting in Texas that left 26 dead and 20 wounded.
So it was really nice to see a segment on the Sunday night documentary program ’60 Minutes’, of a music prodigy, a 12-year old British girl Alma Deutscher.
Science doesn’t yet understand the human brain and its ability to create something new, nearly enough, to explain her extraordinary abilities.
Robert Gjerdingen is a professor of music at Northwestern University in Chicago, and a consultant to Alma’s education. He says very difficult assignments given to her, when she was six, and seven, came back, and it was like listening to a mid-18th century composer (Mozart, Mendelssohn). She is a virtuoso on the piano and the violin.
In December, the Opera San Jose Orchestra will stage Cinderella in Alma’s American debut.