List of music prodigies - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This is a list of music prodigies
Child prodigy
A child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...

, young children (at or under age 12) who displayed a talent in music deemed to make them competitive with skilled adult musicians. The list is sorted by genre and instrument.

Opera

Name	Debut	Notes
Jackie Evancho Jackie Evancho Jacqueline Marie "Jackie" Evancho is an American child singer described as a classical crossover artist. After entering some talent competitions, issuing an independent album, Prelude to a Dream, and attracting interest on YouTube, she gained wider popularity in 2010 with her performances in the...	8	2nd place on America's Got Talent at age 10
Beverly Sills Beverly Sills Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s. In her prime she was the only real rival to Joan Sutherland as the leading bel canto stylist...	12	Won on Major Bowes' Amateur Hour for the week of October 26, 1939, performed Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S... by 16
Faryl Smith Faryl Smith Faryl Smith is a British teen mezzo-soprano who rose to fame after auditioning for the second series of the ITV television talent show Britain's Got Talent in 2008. She received praise throughout the competition, and although she was the favourite to win after the second round, she finished...	12	Was a semi-finalist on Britain's Got Talent at age 12
Charlotte Church Charlotte Church Charlotte Maria Church is a Welsh singer-songwriter, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 10 million records worldwide including over 5 million in the United States...	11	She sang on the Big Big Talent Show at age 11

Piano and organ

Name

Instrument(s)

Debut

Notes

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

Piano, violin

One of the most prolific composers of the Classical Era

Classical period (music)

The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...

Thomas Linley the Younger

Thomas Linley the younger

Thomas Linley the younger was the eldest son of the composer Thomas Linley the elder and his wife Mary Johnson. He was one of the most precocious composers and performers that have been known in England, and became known as the "English Mozart".-Early life:Linley's abilities were apparent from a...

Piano, violin

7 (earliest recorded performance)

Born the same year as Mozart; the two met in Italy and became friends

Charles-Valentin Alkan

Charles-Valentin Alkan was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His attachment to his Jewish origins is displayed both in his life and his work. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of six, earning many awards, and as an adult became a famous virtuoso...

Piano

At the age of seven, he won a first prize for solfège and prizes in piano, harmony, and organ; Luigi Cherubini

Luigi Cherubini

Luigi Cherubini was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries....

, director of the Conservatoire, described his technique and ability as extraordinary

Martha Argerich

Martha Argerich is an Argentine pianist.-Early life:Argerich was born in Buenos Aires and started playing the piano at age three...

Piano

Orchestral debut at age eight

Kit Armstrong

Kit Armstrong is a British-Taiwanese classical pianist and composer. At 10 he had composed more than 15 works, graduated from Los Alamitos High School, and studied sciences at the University of Utah. At 12 he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Imperial...

Piano

Concerto debut at eight; Morton Gould Young Composer Award for five consecutive years

Claudio Arrau

Claudio Arrau León was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning from the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and Debussy...

Piano

Could read notes before letters

Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim, KBE is an Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings....

Piano

Enrique Batiz

Piano

Now a conductor

Emily Bear

Emily Bear is a pianist and composer from Rockford, Illinois.When Bear was 2 years old, her grandmother recognized her talent at the piano. She began to study with Emilio del Rosario at the Music Institute of Chicago. Within 4 years she was enrolled for study of classical music at the Winnetka...

Piano

Child prodigy who composed and released her first piano album at age five.

Vincenzo Bellini

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...

Piano

Began studying music theory at two, the piano at three, and by the age of five could apparently play well

Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a...

Piano

Entered the Paris Conservatory at age nine

Victor Borge

Victor Borge ,born Børge Rosenbaum, was a Danish comedian, conductor and pianist, affectionately known as The Clown Prince of Denmark,The Unmelancholy Dane,and The Great Dane.-Early life and career:...

Piano

Won a full scholarship to the Royal Danish Music Conservatory at age nine

Lili Boulanger

Lili Boulanger was a French composer, the younger sister of the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger.-Early years:A Parisian-born child prodigy, who was good at piano...

Piano, violin, cello, harp

Attended Louis Vierne's organ classes at the Paris Conservatoire at age six

Cameron Carpenter

Cameron Carpenter is an American organist known for his virtuosity, showmanship, technique and arrangements for the organ.-Biography:...

Organ

Performed J. S. Bach's complete The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Well-Tempered Clavier
The Well-Tempered Clavier , BWV 846–893, is a collection of solo keyboard music composed by Johann Sebastian Bach...

from memory at age eleven.

William Crotch

William Crotch was an English composer, organist and artist.Born in Norwich to a master carpenter he showed early musical talent . The three and a half year old Master William Crotch was taken to London by his ambitious mother, where he not only played on the organ of the Chapel Royal in St....

Organ

Became a composer and first Principal of the Royal Academy of Music

Georges Cziffra

Georges Cziffra was a Hungarian virtuoso pianist. He became a French citizen in 1968.Cziffra is most known for his dazzling recordings of Franz Liszt's virtuoso works...

Piano

Entered the Franz Liszt Academy at age nine, after some four years performing in a traveling circus

Per Enflo

Per H. Enflo is a mathematician who has solved fundamental problems in functional analysis. Three of these problems had been open for more than forty years:* The basis problem and the approximation problem and later...

Piano

Won the Swedish competition for young pianists at age eleven in 1956 (and again in 1961)

Richard Farrell

Richard Farrell was a gifted New Zealand classical pianist who achieved almost legendary status, but whose flourishing career was cut short in a road accident at the age of 31...

Piano

Made his first radio broadcast at age four; at seven played his own composition (a lament on the death of an archbishop) in a public concert with the Wellington Symphony Orchestra

Carl Filtsch

Carl Filtsch was a Transylvanian pianist and composer. He was a child prodigy, and student of Frédéric Chopin. -Life and education:...

Piano

Composed concerto at thirteen; died at age fourteen

Horacio Gutiérrez

Horacio Gutiérrez is a Cuban-American virtuoso classical pianist.-Early life and education:Gutiérrez was born in Havana, Cuba, the eldest of four children, to Tomás V. Gutiérrez and Josefina Fernandez Gutiérrez. His mother was his first piano teacher, and was herself, an accomplished pianist. His...

Piano

First piano recital at age four. Orchestral debut at age 11 with the Havana Symphony.

Johana Harris

Johana Harris was a Canadian pianist, composer, and music educator. She had highly successful career as a concert pianist, making numerous recordings and appearing as a soloist with almost every major American symphony orchestra. She made over 100 solo recordings, working with such labels as...

Piano

Composed works as early as age six and began her career as a concert pianist at age eight
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0004100

Felix Hell

Felix Hell is a world renowned organist born on September 14, 1985 in Frankenthal/Pfalz, Germany. He was a child prodigy, performing his first organ recital in Russia at the age of nine, and presenting concerts on the organ in many countries around the world before his 11th...

Organ

Became a church organist at age eight; won competitions at age nine; began recording and touring shortly thereafter

Josef Hofmann

Piano

Helen Huang

Helen Huang, born October 1982 is a classical pianist and former musical prodigy. She began studying piano in 1987, performing and touring with major symphony orchestras while still a child.-Musical career:...

Piano

Performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra

Philadelphia Orchestra

The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...

at age eight

Evgeny Kissin

Evgeny Igorevitch Kissin is a Russian classical pianist and former child prodigy. He has been a British citizen since 2002. He is especially known for his interpretations of the works of the Romantic repertoire, particularly Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt.-Biography:Kissin was born in Moscow to...

Piano

Entered music school at age six

Aimi Kobayashi

is a classical pianist.She lived in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan until February 2007 and later in Tokyo, started studying piano at the age of three, played with an orchestra at age seven, and has been receiving tutelage from Yuko Ninomiya since the age of eight. Awards include three Yamaguchi...

Piano

Performed concerts at age three and with orchestras at age seven, performed at Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

, etc.

Lang Lang

Lang Lang (pianist)

Lang Lang , born June 14, 1982, in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, is a Chinese concert pianist, currently residing in New York, who has performed with leading orchestras in Europe, the United States and his native China. He is increasingly well known around the world for his concert performances,...

Piano

Began playing at age two; entered Beijing Conservatory at age eight; won international competitions at age thirteen

Ingmar Lazar

Ingmar Lazar is a French classical pianist.Ingmar Lazar started to play the piano when he was 5. He made his debut at the age of six at the Salle Gaveau in Paris....

Piano

Solo debut at age six at the Salle Gaveau in Paris

Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...

Piano

Performed first major concert at age eleven

Leo Ornstein

Leo Ornstein was a leading American experimental composer and pianist of the early twentieth century...

Piano

Entered Saint Petersburg Conservatory

Saint Petersburg Conservatory

The N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory is a music school in Saint Petersburg. In 2004, the conservatory had around 275 faculty members and 1,400 students.-History:...

at age ten

Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...

Piano

Composed an opera at age nine

Camille Saint-Saëns

Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...

Piano

Gave his first public recital at age five

Ernest Schelling

Ernest Henry Schelling was an American pianist, composer, and conductor.Born in Belvidere, New Jersey, Schelling was a child prodigy. His first teacher was his father. He entered the Academy of Music in Philadelphia at age 4. At age 7, Schelling traveled to Europe to study. He was admitted to the...

Piano

Began studies in Europe at age seven

Philippa Schuyler

Philippa Duke Schuyler was a noted American child prodigy and pianist who became famous in the 1930s and 1940s as a result of her talent, mixed race parentage, and the eccentric methods employed by her mother to bring her up....

Piano

Dimitris Sgouros

Dimitris Sgouros is a Greek classical pianist. He began playing the piano at a young age, and received formal training in Athens, London, and New York. Widely acclaimed for his prodigious musical talent as a boy, Sgouros is one of the world's leading concert pianists...

Piano

First public recital at age seven; Carnegie Hall debut at age twelve with Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

's Third Piano Concerto

Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)

The Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30, composed in 1909 by Sergei Rachmaninoff is famous for its technical and musical demands on the performer...

Ruth Slenczynska

-Early life:Ruth was born in Sacramento, California. Her father, Joseph Slenczynski was a violinist. Pushed by her parents and starting at age three, Slenczynska was forced to practice the piano relentlessly...

Piano

Played with a full orchestra at age eleven; writer of Forbidden Childhood

Alicia Witt

Alicia Roanne Witt is an American film, stage, television actress and singer.-Early life:Witt was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her mother, Diane , is a junior high school reading teacher, and her father, Robert Witt, is a science teacher and photographer. She has a brother, Ian...

Piano

Won several piano competitions in the years after her debut

Yuja Wang

Yuja Wang is a Chinese classical pianist. She was born in Beijing, began studying piano there at age six, and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.-Early life:...

Piano

Performed in several piano competitions and concerts before moving to Canada at age eleven to study at Mount Royal College.

Noah Grey-Cabey

Piano

Youngest Person to perform solo in Sydney Opera House

[Sophia Chua]

after winning an International Music Competetion.

Strings

Name	Instrument(s)	Debut	Notes
Linda Brava Linda Brava Linda Magdalena Cullberg Lampenius, better known by her maiden name Linda Lampenius and international stage name Linda Brava, is a Finnish classical concert violinist and recording artist.-Background:...	Violin	11	Worldwide tours at age eight, leader of the prestigious Helsinki Juniorstrings at thirteen
Guila Bustabo Guila Bustabo Giulia Bustabo was a prominent American concert and recital violinist. Born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, February 25, 1916 , she had a remarkable career, the latter part mostly in Europe due to her domineering mother’s poor political judgment, and was considered to be eccentric, but a superbly skilled...	Violin	9	Performed with the Chicago Symphony at age 9; made Carnegie Hall debut at age 15
Akim Camara Akim camara Akim Camara is a violinist who began playing at the age of two.-Early life:Akim is a biracial child of mixed African and German descent.-Music career:...	Violin	2	Performed "Schneefloeckchen, Weissbroeckchen" with the Marzahn Hellersdorf School of Music at age 2; with Andre Rieu at the Waldbuehne at age 3; with Andre Rieu at Radio City Music Hall at age 5; with Wolfgang Fischer at age 6 & Richard Clayderman at age 7 (2009).
Sarah Chang Sarah Chang Sarah Chang is a Korean American violinist. Her debut came in 1989 with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Shortly thereafter, Chang was recognized as a child prodigy. She enrolled at Juilliard School to study music, graduating in 1999 and continuing university studies...	Violin	8
Jacqueline du Pré Jacqueline du Pré Jacqueline Mary du Pré OBE was a British cellist. She is particularly associated with Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation has been described as "definitive" and "legendary." Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to stop performing at 28 and led to her...	Cello	8
Midori Goto Midori Goto is a Japanese American violinist. She made her debut at the age of 11 in a last-minute change of programming during a concert highlighting young performers by the New York Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta. When she was 21, she formed the philanthropic group Midori and Friends to help bring music to...	Violin	11
Ryu Goto Ryu Goto is a Japanese-American concert violinist. Goto gained attention as a child prodigy, first performing at the age of seven in the Pacific Music Festival held in Sapporo, Japan. His debut tour of 12 cities of Japan, in 2006, was sold out.-Early life:...	Violin	7
Ida Haendel Ida Haendel Ida Haendel, CBE is a British violinist of Polish birth.- Career :Ida Haendel was born in Chełm, a small city in Eastern Poland. She took up the violin at the age of three and as a seven-year-old was admitted at the Warsaw Conservatory. She later studied with Carl Flesch and George Enescu in Paris...	Violin		Prizewinner in Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition at age six
Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...	Violin	7
Mayuko Kamio Mayuko Kamio Mayuko Kamio is a Japanese violinist.Kamio currently studies with Zakhar Bron at the Hochschule Musik und Theater in Zurich, Switzerland. She plays a Stradivarius from 1727, previously owned by Joseph Joachim, on loan from Suntory...	Violin	10
Koh Gabriel Kameda Koh Gabriel Kameda Koh Gabriel Kameda is a German-Japanese concert violinist and violin teacher.- Early life :Koh Gabriel Kameda was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, into a family of medical doctors...	Violin	9	Orchestral debut at thirteen performed the violin concerto No. 5 by Henri Vieuxtemps with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra
Rachel Lee Rachel Lee Rachel Lee is an American violinist.Regarded as one of the most promising upcoming talents on the international stage, Rachel has performed with major orchestras worldwide, including the Chicago, Seattle, Saint Louis, and National Symphonies, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Seoul Philharmonic, and...	Violin	8	She has studied at the Juilliard School since age 8
Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...	Cello	5	Performed for audiences at 5; performed for John F. Kennedy John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963.... at 7; appeared on TV at 8
Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...	Violin	7
Anne Akiko Meyers Anne Akiko Meyers Anne Akiko Meyers is an American concert violinist. Meyers has toured and collaborated with a number of symphony orchestras and Il Divo, Chris Botti and Wynton Marsalis. Meyers tours with a 1730 Stradivarius violin called the 'Royal Spanish'...	Violin	7
Stefan Milenković Stefan Milenkovic Stefan Milenković is a Serbian concert violinist and a member of the faculty at the Juilliard School and the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.-Biography:...	Violin	10	First international award at age seven
Alma Moodie Alma Moodie Alma Templeton Moodie was an Australian violinist who established an excellent reputation in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. She was regarded as the foremost female violinist during the inter-war years, and she premiered violin concertos by Kurt Atterberg, Hans Pfitzner and Ernst Krenek...	Violin	6	Entered Brussels Conservatory at age 9; premiered concertos by Kurt Atterberg Kurt Atterberg Kurt Magnus Atterberg was a Swedish composer. He is best known for his symphonies, operas and ballets. Atterberg once said that: "The Russians, Brahms, Reger were my ideals." His music combines their influences with Swedish folk tunes.-Biography:Atterberg was born in Gothenburg as the son of the... , Hans Pfitzner Hans Pfitzner Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his... and Ernst Krenek Ernst Krenek Ernst Krenek was an Austrian of Czech origin and, from 1945, American composer. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music...
Anne-Sophie Mutter Anne-Sophie Mutter Anne-Sophie Mutter is a German violinist.- Early life :Mutter was born in Rheinfelden, Germany. She began playing the piano at age five, and shortly afterwards took up the violin, studying with Erna Honigberger, a pupil of Carl Flesch...	Violin	9
David Oistrakh David Oistrakh David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....	Violin	6
Gregor Piatigorsky Gregor Piatigorsky Gregor Piatigorsky was a Russian-born American cellist.-Early life:...	Cello		Entered the Moscow Conservatory Moscow Conservatory The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St... at age eleven; headed a quartet at age fifteen
Michael Rabin Michael Rabin (violinist) Michael Rabin was an American virtuoso violinist whose fame has continued despite his death at the age of 35.Michael Rabin was of Romanian-Jewish descent. His mother Jeanne was a Juilliard-trained pianist, and his father George was a violinist in the New York Philharmonic...	Violin	10	Could "keep beat" at age one
Florizel von Reuter Florizel von Reuter Florizel von Reuter was an American-born violinist and composer, a child prodigy who went on to an adult career, mainly in Germany, as distinguished soloist and teacher of violin...	Violin	10	Graduated from Geneva Conservatory at age 11, 1901
Ruggiero Ricci Ruggiero Ricci Ruggiero Ricci is an Italian-American violinist known for performances and recordings of the works of Paganini. He was born in San Bruno, California. Ricci's brother was cellist and his sister Emma played violin with the New York Metropolitan Opera.He is the son of Italian immigrants. His...	Violin	10	Began international tours at age fourteen
Clara Rockmore Clara Rockmore Clara Rockmore was a virtuoso performer of the theremin, an electronic musical instrument.-Biography :Born as Clara Reisenberg in Vilnius, Lithuania, Rockmore was a child prodigy on the violin and entered the Imperial conservatory of Saint Petersburg at the age of five...	Violin, theremin Theremin The theremin , originally known as the aetherphone/etherophone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox is an early electronic musical instrument controlled without discernible physical contact from the player. It is named after its Russian inventor, Professor Léon Theremin, who patented the device...	9	Entered the Imperial Conservatory at age five, the youngest ever student
Henriett Seth F.	Contrabass	10	Gave up creative music career altogether at age 13
Leo Smith Leo Smith (composer) Leo Joseph Leopold Smith was an English composer, writer, music critic, music educator, and cellist who was primarily active in Canada...	Cello	8	http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0003242
Frank Peter Zimmermann Frank Peter Zimmermann Frank Peter Zimmermann is a German violinist.He was born in Duisburg, Germany, and started playing the violin when he was five years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10....	Violin	10

Winds

Name	Instrument(s)	Debut	Notes
Raphael Severe Raphael Severe Raphael Severe is a young French clarinet prodigy who was born on 15 September 1994 in Rennes . - Biography: received a very early musical education from his mother, a Hungarian pianist and his father, a French clarinettist: the piano, the violin and the cello.Aged 8, he took up the clarinet at the...	Clarinet	11	Played Mozart clarinet concerto in China only three years after starting to learn the clarinet.http://www.raphael-severe.com

Julian Bliss

Julian Bliss is a British clarinetist and clarinet designer. He has performed both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, notably with his teacher Sabine Meyer...

Clarinet

Began playing the clarinet at the age of 4. Currently a virtuoso touring musician. Has played for British royalty.]

Composing and conducting

Name	Talent	Debut	Notes
Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola was a Spanish composer. He was nicknamed the "Spanish Mozart" after he died, because, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he was also a child prodigy and an accomplished composer who died young... (1806–1826)	Composer	11	Composed a two-act opera at age thirteen
Samuel Barber Samuel Barber Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music... (1910–1981)	Composer, conductor	7	Attempted an opera at age ten; attended the Curtis Institute of Music Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S... at age fourteen
Georges Bizet Georges Bizet Georges Bizet formally Alexandre César Léopold Bizet, was a French composer, mainly of operas. In a career cut short by his early death, he achieved few successes before his final work, Carmen, became one of the most popular and frequently performed works in the entire opera repertory.During a... (1838–1875)	Composer		Entered the Paris Conservatoire at age ten
Frédéric Chopin Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....	Composer	7	Began concerts and polonaises at age seven; attained notability by age fifteen
Ruth Gipps Ruth Gipps Ruth Gipps was a British composer, oboist and pianist.-Biography:Ruth Gipps was born in Bexhill-on-Sea, England in 1921. She was something of a child prodigy, winning performance competitions in which she was considerably younger than the rest of the field -- and female, to boot...	Composer	8
Morton Gould Morton Gould Morton Gould was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist.Born in Richmond Hill, New York, Gould was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities in improvisation and composition. His first composition was published at age six...	Composer, conductor	6
Jay Greenberg Jay Greenberg Jay "Bluejay" Greenberg is an American composer who entered the Juilliard School in 2002.-Life and work:... (born 1991)	Composer	12	Entered Juilliard School Juilliard School The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905... at age ten; composed five symphonies by age twelve
Erich Wolfgang Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austro-Hungarian film and romantic music composer. While his compositional style was considered well out of vogue at the time he died, his music has more recently undergone a reevaluation and a gradual reawakening of interest...	Composer, conductor	11
Lorin Maazel Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was... (born 1930)	Conductor	7
Felix Mendelssohn Felix Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...	Composer, conductor	12
Gian Carlo Menotti Gian Carlo Menotti Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-American composer and librettist. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship. He wrote the classic Christmas opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular...	Composer	7	Composed first opera at age eleven
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...		5	His first compositions were Andante (K. 1a) and Allegro (K. 1b)
Olli Mustonen Olli Mustonen Olli Mustonen is a Finnish pianist, conductor and composer.- Biography :He studied harpsichord and piano from the age of five with Ralf Gothóni and then Eero Heinonen. He studied composition with Einojuhani Rautavaara from 1975... (born 1967)		?	Composed a Divertimento for piano and orchestra at the age of 12, and his piano concerto at the age of 14.
Niccolò Paganini Niccolò Paganini Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...	Composer, violinist	7
Alex Prior Alex Prior Alex Prior is a British composer and conductor who studied at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.-Life and career:Prior was born in London to a British father and a Russian mother who descended from Constantin Stanislavski... (born 1992)	Composer, conductor	8
Josef Rheinberger Josef Rheinberger Josef Gabriel Rheinberger was a German organist and composer, born in Liechtenstein.-Short biography:... (1839-1901)	Composer	7	Entered the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München Hochschule für Musik und Theater München The Hochschule für Musik und Theater München is one of the most respected traditional vocational universities in Germany specialising in music and the performing arts. The seat of the Hochschule is the former Führerbau of the NSDAP, located at Arcisstraße 12, on the eastern side of the Königsplatz... at age twelve
Nino Rota Nino Rota Nino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti... (1911–1979)	Composer	11	Composed an oratorio at the age of 10, conducting performances in Italy and Paris.
Julian Scriabin Julian Scriabin Julian Scriabin was the son of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin and Tatiana de Schloezer. He was himself a composer and pianist. Considered a prodigy, as a composer Julian wrote a few preludes—two of which were published in Сборник —and showed great promise.His few works are reminiscent of his... (1908–1919)	Composer	c. 9–11
Edgard Varèse Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse, , whose name was also spelled Edgar Varèse , was an innovative French-born composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States....	Composer, conductor	12	Composed first opera at age 12.

Bagpipes

John Burgess
John Burgess (bagpiper)
Pipe Major John Davie Burgess MBE was one of the most eminent players of the Scots bagpipes. He began playing at the age of four, and gained international fame as a child prodigy, before turning professional at the age of sixteen...

began playing at the age of four before turning professional at the age of sixteen. He was known as the 'King Of The Highland Pipers'.

Country and bluegrass

Billy Gilman
Billy Gilman
William Wendell "Billy" Gilman III is an American country music artist. In 2000, at the age of 12, he debuted with the single "One Voice," a Top 20 hit on the Billboard country music charts and became the youngest singer to a Top 40 hit on the country music charts...

: Had a hit single and a platinum album at age eleven; was nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

against adult competition at age twelve
Hunter Hayes: a cajun accordionist that began his musical career at age four, making appearances at local performances and on national television.
Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...

: Won local competitions at age ten and was named the most promising Midwestern fiddler at age twelve
Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee
Brenda Mae Tarpley , known as Brenda Lee, is an American performer who sang rockabilly, pop and country music, and had 37 US chart hits during the 1960s, a number surpassed only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Ray Charles and Connie Francis...

: Debuted at age ten
Doug Sahm
Doug Sahm
Douglas Wayne Sahm , was an American musician from Texas. Born in San Antonio, Texas, he was a child prodigy in country music, but became a significant figure in blues rock and other genres. Today Sahm is considered one of the most important figures in what is identified as Tejano music...

: Played with Hank Williams at age eleven; released an album by age fourteen; later helped form the rock band Sir Douglas Quintet
Sir Douglas Quintet
Sir Douglas Quintet was a rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Despite their British sounding name, they came out of San Antonio, Texas. Their career was established when they began working with Texas record-producer Huey P. Meaux, after which the band relocated to the West Coast...

and the Tejano music
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...

related Texas Tornados
Texas Tornados
Texas Tornados is a Tejano band. Its music is a fusion of rock, country and various Mexican styles.-History:The initial combination of musicians of the Texas Tornados happened almost by chance at a concert performance of a mutual acquaintance...
Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs
Rickie Lee "Ricky" Skaggs is a country and bluegrass singer, musician, producer, and composer. He primarily plays mandolin; however, he also plays fiddle, guitar, and banjo.-Early career:...

: Mandolin virtuoso; performed with Flatt and Scruggs at age seven
Chris Thile
Chris Thile
Christopher Scott Thile is an American musician, best known as the mandolinist and a singer for the progressive acoustic trio Nickel Creek. His current band is Punch Brothers whose most recent album is Antifogmatic...

: Cofounded Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek
Nickel Creek was an American progressive acoustic music trio consisting of Chris Thile , Sara Watkins and Sean Watkins . The band was founded in 1989 and released 6 albums between 1993 and 2006...

at age eight

Folk and world music

Areti Ketime
Areti Ketime
Areti Ketime , born July 26, 1989, is a singer and a santouri player from Greece who performs a broad spectrum of Greek traditional music....

: Debuted at age six; performed at the 2004 Summer Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...

at age fourteen
Adán Sánchez
Adán Sánchez
Adán Santos Sánchez , was a popular American singer.-Biography:Sánchez was born in Torrance, CA. He was the son of singer Chalino Sánchez. He was eight years old when his father was kidnapped and killed in the Mexican state of Sinaloa in 1992...

: Released first album at age eleven

Blues

Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa
Joe Bonamassa is an American blues rock guitarist and singer.-Early life:Bonamassa was born and raised in New Hartford, United States. His parents owned and ran a guitar shop. He is a fourth-generation musician...

: Became proficient at Guitar at age 11, opened for B.B. King at age 13.
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd
Kenny Wayne Shepherd is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has released several studio albums and experienced a rare level of commercial success both as a blues artist and a young musician.-Biography:Shepherd graduated Caddo Magnet High School in Shreveport, Louisiana...

: Began at age seven; performed onstage with professionals at age thirteen
Quinn Sullivan
Quinn Sullivan
Quinn Sullivan is an American child prodigy from New Bedford, Massachusetts who plays the guitar. He released his debut album Cyclone in 2011.-Career:...

: Began playing guitar at age 3; has performed onstage with B.B. King and Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks
Derek Trucks is a Grammy Award-winning, American guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. He founded The Derek Trucks Band and worked as a session musician when he was still in his early teens. Throughout those teenage years, he toured with The Allman Brothers Band primarily as a slide...

: Began playing with The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band
The Allman Brothers Band is an American rock/blues band once based in Macon, Georgia. The band was formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman and Gregg Allman , who were supported by Dickey Betts , Berry Oakley , Butch Trucks , and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe"...

at age 11

Jazz and jazz-fusion

Shelly Berg
Shelly Berg
Shelton Glen Berg is a jazz pianist from Cleveland, Ohio. His father was trumpet player Jay Berg. At the age of six Shelly Berg entered the Cleveland Institute of Music studying classical piano...

: Entered the Cleveland Institute of Music
Cleveland Institute of Music
The Cleveland Institute of Music is an independent music conservatory located in the University Circle district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States and is overseen by president Joel Smirnoff and Adrian Daly, dean....

at age six; was a professional musician at age thirteen
Andy Bey
Andy Bey
Andrew W. Bey is a jazz singer and pianist.Bey has a wide vocal range, with his four octave baritone voice.He worked on a television show, Startime, with Connie Francis and sang for Louis Jordan....

: He played at clubs at 5, By age 12 he performed at the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...

with Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...

and had his first recording.
Bix Biederbecke: Self-taught piano and cornet player, learning the first at a particularly young age (playing with his hands overhead while standing). Article written about him in Davenport (Iowa) newspaper at age 7, and went on to great fame before dying probably of alcoholism at age 28.
Francesco Cafiso
Francesco Cafiso
Francesco Cafiso is an Italian jazz musician who plays alto saxophone. He began playing at age nine and premiered in 2001. In 2003 he toured Europe with Wynton Marsalis. In 2005, at age sixteen, he won Italy's version of the Golden Django...

: He worked with Franco D'Andrea
Franco D'Andrea
Franco D'Andrea is an Italian pianist who plays mostly jazz and rock. He developed his style in the 1960s and won several awards in his home country...

at age 11 or 12.
Terri Lyne Carrington
Terri Lyne Carrington
Terri Lyne Carrington is a jazz drummer, composer, record producer and entrepreneur. She has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Yellowjackets, and many more...

: Awarded a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music, located in Boston, Massachusetts, is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known primarily as a school for jazz, rock and popular music, it also offers college-level courses in a wide range of contemporary and historic styles, including hip...

at age eleven
Dennis Chambers
Dennis Chambers
Dennis Chambers is an American drummer who has recorded and performed with John Scofield, George Duke, Brecker Brothers, Santana, Parliament/Funkadelic, John McLaughlin, Niacin, Mike Stern, Greg Howe, and many others. Despite a lack of formal training, Chambers has become well known among...

: began playing drums at age three, was professional at 9, was an 'in demand' drummer on the NYC music scene at the age of 14, and was a member of Parliament-Funkadelic at the age of 18.
Cyrus Chestnut
Cyrus Chestnut
Cyrus Chestnut is an American jazz pianist, songwriter, and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time Magazine, wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space." Chestnut enjoys mixing styles and resists being...

: Entered the Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...

at age nine
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman
Cy Coleman was an American composer, songwriter, and jazz pianist.-Life and career:He was born Seymour Kaufman on June 14, 1929, in New York City to Eastern European Jewish parents, and was raised in the Bronx. His mother, Ida was an apartment landlady and his father was a brickmason...

: Played in Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

at age seven
Eldar Djangirov
Eldar Djangirov
Eldar E. Djangirov, most commonly known only as Eldar, is a jazz pianist. He was born on January 28, 1987 in Kyrgyzstan and then moved to Kansas, United States. He currently resides in New York City.-Early years:...

: "Discovered" at age nine; became the youngest musician to appear on Piano Jazz
Piano Jazz
Piano Jazz is a weekly one hour radio show produced and distributed by National Public Radio. It began on June 4, 1978 and has always been hosted by jazz pianist Marian McPartland. It is the longest running cultural program on NPR. The show features a single guest, and usually consists of about an...

at age twelve; released his first CD at age fourteen
Taylor Eigsti
Taylor Eigsti
Taylor Eigsti is an American jazz pianist and composer.A former child prodigy, Eigsti started studying piano at age four. He recorded his first album at age 14...

: Opened for David Benoit at age eight and played with Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...

at age twelve
Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

: Performed on piano with the Chicago symphony at age eleven; began playing jazz later in college
Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène
Biréli Lagrène is a French guitarist and bassist. He came to prominence in the 1980s for his Django Reinhardt-influenced style on the classical guitar, as well as for being a jazz fusion virtuoso on the electric guitar...

: Won a Gypsy music
Gypsy jazz
Gypsy jazz is an idiom often said to have been started by guitarist Jean "Django" Reinhardt in the 1930s. Because its origins are largely in France it is often called by the French name, "Jazz manouche," or alternatively, "manouche jazz," even in English language sources...

festival in Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

at age eight and performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...

at thirteen.
Buddy Rich
Buddy Rich
Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...

: Began playing drums at 18 months old; was a bandleader by age eleven
Sugar Chile Robinson: A pianist in the jazz sub-genre of boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie
Boogie-woogie has the following meanings:*Boogie-woogie, a piano-based music style*Boogie-woogie , a swing dance or a dance that imitates the rock-n-roll dance of the 1950s*"Boogie Woogie" , a song by EuroGroove and Dannii Minogue...

, he had his first public performance at the age of 3; he retired from active performing at age 13.
Hilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz
Hilton Ruiz was a Puerto Rican American jazz pianist in the Afro-Cuban jazz mold, but was also a talented bebop player....

: Performed at Carnegie Recital Hall at age eight; played in an accordion symphony at age nine
Consuelo Velázquez
Consuelo Velázquez
Consuelo Velázquez was a Mexican concert pianist, songwriter and recording artist.According to her obituary, she was 88 years old when she died...

: Began playing at age four; performed piano concerto at age six; wrote Bésame Mucho
Bésame Mucho
"Bésame Mucho" is a Spanish language song written in 1940 by Mexican songwriter Consuelo Velázquez.-Inspiration:According to Velázquez herself, she wrote this song even though she had never been kissed yet at the time, and kissing as she heard was considered a sin.She was inspired by the piano...

at age sixteen
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. Williams wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records...

: Taught herself piano before age five; played professionally by age thirteen
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett is an American pianist and composer who performs both jazz and classical music.Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey, moving on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s he has enjoyed a great deal of success in jazz, jazz fusion, and classical music; as...

: Pianist

R&B, soul,hip-hop, and funk

Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

: Joined his older siblings in the Jackson 5 at age five; his dancing, singing and performing abilities soon surpassed his older siblings; He had his first No.1 as a solo artist at age 13, and his first No.1 (as the lead singer of the Jackson 5) at age 11.
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones
Booker T. Jones is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known as the frontman of the band Booker T. and the MGs. He has also worked in the studios with many well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, earning him a Grammy Award for lifetime...

: Keyboardist for Booker T and the M.G's was profecient at organ, piano, oboe, saxophone, and trombone by the age of 10. He began playing as a professional session musician at 16.
Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight
Gladys Maria Knight , known as the "Empress of Soul", is an American singer-songwriter, actress, businesswoman, humanitarian, and author...

: Began performing at age four; won on the Original Amateur Hour
Original Amateur Hour
The Original Amateur Hour is an American radio and television program. The show was a continuation of Major Bowes Amateur Hour which had been a radio staple from 1934 to 1945. Major Edward Bowes, the originator of the program and its master of ceremonies, left the show in 1945 and died the...

at age seven; toured at age eight
Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

: Skilled at multiple instruments early; signed to Motown at age eleven; first U.S. number-one hit at age thirteen.
Bernie Worrell
Bernie Worrell
George Bernard "Bernie" Worrell, Jr. is an American keyboardist and composer best known as a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic and for his work with Talking Heads. He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen other members of Parliament-Funkadelic...

: Originally classically trained; wrote a concerto at age eight.
Victor Wooten
Victor Wooten
Victor Lemonte Wooten is an American bass player, composer, author, and producer, and has been the recipient of five Grammy Awards....

: Bela Fleck's bassist, started playing funk-bass at 3.
Richie Sambora
Richie Sambora
Richard Stephen "Richie" Sambora is an American rock guitarist, producer, musician, singer, and songwriter who is the longtime lead guitarist of the rock band, Bon Jovi. He and frontman Jon Bon Jovi form the primary songwriting unit of the band...

: Bon Jovi guitarist began playing music at age 3, using various instruments throughout his childhood; he started playing guitar at 12.
Sugar Chile Robinson: Won talent contests as singer and pianist from age 3, performed and recorded as a child with Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...

, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...

and others

Pop

Dido
Dido (singer)
Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong , known as Dido, is an English singer-songwriter.Dido shot to worldwide success with her debut album, No Angel...

: Entered the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...

at age six.
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Frederick Hamlisch is an American composer. He is one of only thirteen people to have been awarded Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and a Tony . He is also one of only two people to EGOT and also win a Pulitzer Prize...

: Became the youngest student ever accepted by the Juilliard School of Music at age seven.
Cleopatra Stratan
Cleopatra Stratan
Cleopatra Stratan is the youngest person ever to score commercial success as a singer, with her 2006 album La vârsta de trei ani...

: Had a hit single at the age of 3; Youngest artist to win an MTV award

Alternative and rock

Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...

: Attended the Peabody Institute
Peabody Institute
The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University is a renowned conservatory and preparatory school located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland at the corner of Charles and Monument Streets at Mount Vernon Place.-History:...

at age five and was expelled from it at 11.
Björk
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir , known as Björk , is an Icelandic singer-songwriter. Her eclectic musical style has achieved popular acknowledgement and popularity within many musical genres, such as rock, jazz, electronic dance music, classical and folk...

: Began classical study at age five; released an album at age eleven
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Morissette
Alanis Nadine Morissette is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and actress. She has won 16 Juno Awards and seven Grammy Awards, was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and also shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination...

: Released her first song at age ten, which later became an unsuccessful single; became a protege of a local folk musician; had her own record and record producing company at an early age
Wolfgang Van Halen
Wolfgang Van Halen
Wolfgang William Van Halen , is an American musician. He is the current bassist for Van Halen, replacing Michael Anthony in 2006.-Personal life:...

: Son of Van Halen
Van Halen
Van Halen is an American hard rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1972. The band has enjoyed success since the release of its debut album, Van Halen, . As of 2007 Van Halen has sold 80 million albums worldwide and has had the most #1 hits on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart...

guitarist Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen
Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen is a Dutch-American guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter and producer, best known as the lead guitarist and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame...

, Wolfgang began playing on-stage with the band at age 13, and was a full member of Van Halen at age 15. He plays guitar, electric bass, drums, and keyboard.
Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood
Stephen Lawrence "Steve" Winwood is an English international recording artist whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is a songwriter and a musician whose genres include soul music , R&B, rock, blues-rock, pop-rock, and jazz...

: Played organ in the "The Ron Atkinson Band" at age eight; was backing blues legends by age thirteen on United Kingdom tours; became the keyboardist for The Spencer Davis Group at age fifteen
Charly Garcia
Charly García
Charly García is a singer-songwriter, pianist and keyboardist from Argentina with a long career in rock music, forming successful groups such as Sui Generis and Serú Girán, cult status groups like La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros, and as a solo musician.-Early years:Charly García was the eldest son in...

: Played piano at age of three, gifted. He has absolute pitch.
Vangelis
Vangelis
Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou is a Greek composer of electronic, progressive, ambient, jazz, pop rock and orchestral music, under the artist name Vangelis...

: Was composing at age of four.
Jason Becker
Jason Becker
Jason Eli Becker is an American virtuoso neo-classical metal guitarist and composer. At the age of 16, he became part of the Mike Varney-produced duo Cacophony with his friend Marty Friedman. They released Speed Metal Symphony in 1987 and Go Off! in 1988...

: Gifted electric guitarist afflicted with ALS
Jordan Rudess
Jordan Rudess
Jordan Rudess is an American keyboardist best known as a member of the progressive metal band Dream Theater and the progressive rock supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment.-Biography:...

: entered the Juilliard School of Music Pre-College Division for classical piano training at age nine. He currently plays keyboards, continuum, and synthesizers in the progressive metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...

band Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...

.
Nathan Young: Joined the band Anberlin
Anberlin
Anberlin is an American rock band formed in Winter Haven, Florida in 2002. Since the beginning of 2007, the band has consisted of lead vocalist Stephen Christian, guitarists Joseph Milligan and Christian McAlhaney, bassist Deon Rexroat, and drummer Nathan Young.Members of Anberlin originally formed...

as a drummer at age 12.

Hindustani-Classical Music

Ustad Zakir Hussain
Zakir Hussain (musician)
Zakir Hussain , , is an Indian tabla player, musical producer, film actor and composer.-Early life:Hussain was born in Mumbai, India to the legendary tabla player Alla Rakha. He attended St...

: A tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...

maestro who was touring by the age of twelve.
Kumar Gandharva
Kumar Gandharva
Kumar Gandharva or Shivaputra Siddharamayya Komkallimath was a Hindustani classical singer, famous for his unique vocal style, refusal to be bound by the tradition of any gharana, and his innovative genius...

: Legendary vocalist enthralled audiences and senior artists alike in his tours at a young age of twelve.
Chandrakant Sardeshmukh
Chandrakant Sardeshmukh
Chandrakant Sardeshmukh is a Hindustani classical sitar player of the Maihar Gharana .He was taught by Ustad Shabuddin Khan and Khurshid Mirajkar from the age of 4, and became popular as child artist. He performed in the famous Sawai Gandharva Music Festival in Pune in 1963...

: A Sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

maestro who performed at the age of six and declared child prodigy by world famous Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar , often referred to by the title Pandit, is an Indian musician and composer who plays the plucked string instrument sitar. He has been described as the best known contemporary Indian musician by Hans Neuhoff in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart.Shankar was born in Varanasi and spent...

.

Opera

Piano and organ

Strings

Winds

Composing and conducting

Bagpipes

Country and bluegrass

Folk and world music

Blues

Jazz and jazz-fusion

R&B, soul,hip-hop, and funk

Pop

Alternative and rock

Hindustani-Classical Music

Further reading