Child prodigy composers and what they wrote as kids

A child prodigy is a child who can do something at the level of a skilled adult. Music has had many. Mozart wrote his first pieces at five, and Mendelssohn wrote a masterpiece at sixteen. This page lists ten composers who began young, the music they wrote as children, and a piece to hear for each. It also names great composers who started late.

What they wrote, and when

Composer	Age	What they wrote
Saint-Saëns	3	A little piano piece
Amy Beach	4	Three waltzes, made up in her head
Mozart	5	Short keyboard pieces
Prokofiev	5	A piano piece called “Indian Galop”
Chopin	7	Two polonaises
Clara Schumann	11	Four polonaises, her Opus 1
Korngold	11	A ballet, The Snowman
Beethoven	about 12	Nine variations for piano, his first printed work
Rossini	12	Six sonatas for strings
Mendelssohn	12 to 14	Twelve symphonies for strings

Ten composers who started young

1. Mozart

Mozart’s father wrote down the boy’s first pieces when he was five. Mozart wrote his first symphony at eight, in London, and his first opera at eleven. He spent much of his childhood on tour, playing for kings and queens. Read Mozart for kids.

Hear: Minuet in G, K. 1. It lasts about a minute.

2. Mendelssohn

Between 12 and 14, Mendelssohn wrote twelve symphonies for string orchestra. They were played at his family’s Sunday concerts at home. At 16, he wrote his Octet for strings, and at 17, the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Read Mendelssohn for kids.

Hear: The scherzo from the Octet, light and quick.

3. Fanny Mendelssohn

Felix’s older sister was as gifted as he was. At 13, she played 24 preludes by Bach from memory as a birthday present for her father. Read Fanny Mendelssohn for kids.

Hear: One month from Das Jahr, her set of piano pieces for the year.

4. Clara Schumann

Clara Wieck gave her first big concert at nine. Her first printed pieces came out when she was eleven. She began a piano concerto at 13 and played its first performance at 16. Read Clara Schumann for kids.

Hear: The last movement of her Piano Concerto in A minor.

5. Chopin

A polonaise is a proud Polish dance. Chopin wrote two of them at seven, and one was printed. Warsaw newspapers wrote about him. He played his first public concert at eight. Read Chopin for kids.

Hear: Polonaise in G minor, the one he wrote at seven.

6. Saint-Saëns

Saint-Saëns could pick out tunes on the piano at two and a half. He wrote a piece at three. At ten, he gave a concert in Paris and offered to play any Beethoven sonata from memory as an encore. Read Saint-Saëns for kids.

Hear: “The Swan,” which he wrote much later, as an adult.

7. Prokofiev

Prokofiev’s mother wrote down his first piece when he was five. At nine, he wrote an opera called The Giant, and his family acted it out at home. Read Prokofiev for kids.

Hear: “March” from Music for Children, written when he was grown.

8. Rossini

At 12, Rossini wrote six sonatas for two violins, cello, and double bass. He later said he wrote them in three days. They are still played. Read Rossini for kids.

Hear: The last movement of String Sonata No. 1.

9. Erich Wolfgang Korngold

Korngold grew up in Vienna. At 11, he wrote the music for a ballet called The Snowman, and it was staged at the city’s opera house when he was 13. As an adult, he moved to Hollywood and won two Oscars for his film scores.

Hear: The march from his score for The Adventures of Robin Hood.

10. Amy Beach

Beach made up three waltzes at four, with no piano in the house, and played them when she got home. Read Amy Beach for kids.

Hear: “A Hermit Thrush at Morn.”

A prodigy today

Alma Deutscher was born in England in 2005. She finished a full opera, Cinderella, as a child, and it was staged in Vienna in 2016, when she was 11.

Composers who started late

Most great composers were not child prodigies.

• Tchaikovsky trained as a law clerk and began full-time music study in his early twenties
• Elgar taught himself and became known at 42
• Vaughan Williams had his first big successes in his late thirties
• Jennifer Higdon wrote her first piece at 21

A slow start says nothing about where a musician will end up.

What prodigies have in common

Music at home. Nearly all of the ten grew up with a relative who played or taught.

An early start and a great deal of time. They spent hours a day at an instrument from a young age.

Good teachers. Each had skilled lessons early.

A cost. Many missed ordinary childhood. Mozart spent years on the road, and Clara Schumann’s father controlled every hour of her day.

Things to do together

Same age. Find the row in the table that matches your child’s age. Listen to what that composer wrote. Ask your child what they think of it.

Write a minuet. Play Mozart’s Minuet in G. Count “one, two, three” along with it. Make up a short tune in three on any instrument or by singing.

Write it down. Mozart’s father and Prokofiev’s mother wrote down their children’s first tunes. Ask your child to hum a made-up tune. Record it on a phone.

Home opera. Prokofiev’s family acted out his opera. Pick a fairy tale and sing it instead of speaking it, with the whole family taking parts.

Print and play

Write a first piece on big staff paper for kids. Fill in a composer study notebook page for one prodigy. If your child is starting lessons, read best age to start piano lessons.

For more composers by era, see classical composers for kids.