A child prodigy is widely-considered to be any person who at an age of less than 18 performs a difficult skill with a level of expertise normally only demonstrated by a highly-proficient adult.
It’s a description which can only be applied to a very few, very gifted children – including the ones listed below.
1. Ruth Lawrence
At an age when most of us were getting to grips with addition and subtraction, British schoolgirl Ruth Lawrence was acquainting herself with the principles of advanced calculus. Having gained a Maths O-level and A-level at the age of nine, the Brighton genius won a place at Oxford University at the age of 10. Three years later she attained a starred first-class degree.
Now aged 40, Ruth is a professor of mathematics at the Einstein Institute of Mathematics.
2. Tatum O’Neal
American Tatum O’Neal first found fame when she starred alongside her father, Ryan O’Neal, in the 1973 film Paper Moon. The role saw her win that year’s Best Supporting Actress Oscar and she remains the youngest person ever to win an Oscar statuette. Tatum later went on to become the wife of John McEnroe (they separated in 1992) and still regularly appears on American television shows.
3. Mozart
When young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was just four his music father teacher, “just for a game”, began teaching him a few pieces of music on the clavier. Mr Mozart senior was amazed when his son played the pieces back to him faultlessly and with a great sympathetic feel for the music.
Within a year Mozart’s father was reduced to the supporting role of frantically scribbling down the music which his prodigious son was by now composing.
By the time of his death, at the age of just 35, Mozart had written over 600 highly-acclaimed compositions. It pays to start young!
4. Julie Andrews
Austria has Mozart, Germany has Beethoven (who was thought to be just six or seven when he gave his first public performance) and Britain also has its fair share of musical child prodigies – albeit ones who aren’t primarily regarded as composers.
Julie Andrews – famous for roles such as Mary Poppins (in Mary Poppins) and Maria Von Trapp (The Sound of Music) – made her professional solo debut at the tender age of 12. She sang the complex aria Je Suis Titania in front of an enchanted London Hippodrome audience.
5. Charlotte Church
Welsh singer Charlotte Church’s debut came at an even earlier age than that of Andrews’ – she was just 11 when she sang on the Big Big Talent Show. She was awarded a place on the show after she sang Pie Jesu over the phone on daytime TV show This Morning in 1997. Sometimes all it takes to achieve stardom is a quick phone call!
6. Nadia Comaneci
Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci won three gold medals at the 1976 Montreal Olympics; quite an achievement for someone who was yet to turn 15. Her routine on the uneven bars was particularly noteworthy as she became the first gymnast – of any age – to be awarded a perfect ten in competition.
It was an achievement which the Montreal scoreboard was unable to deal with – it was unequipped to display the figure 10.0 as no one was expected to ever achieve this level – so it displayed 1.0 instead. The crowd’s confusion soon gave way to a standing ovation as the child prodigy’s incredible feat was rightly hailed.
7. Rimbaud
French poet Arthur Rimbaud was known to be a libertine long before Pete Doherty gave the word a different meaning. Rimbaud wrote one of his best-loved poems, Ophelie, when he was just 15; it is still considered to be one of his three or four finest pieces of work.
Described by fellow French writer Victor Hugo as “an infant Shakespeare”, Rimbaud gave up all creative writing before the age of 20. By then he had written seven collections of poetry which have influenced the likes of Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith. His poetry is still greatly loved today.
8. Picasso
Spanish artist Pablo Picasso was also known to be a big admirer of Rimbaud’s.
By the age of his eight, Picasso’s father had begun giving him art instruction. The tuition paid off handsomely as can be seen if you visit Barcelona’s Museu Picasso and take a look at his painting Le Picador, completed when he was just nine.
Le Picador was just the beginning – at the age of 14 he applied the final brush strokes to Portrait of Aunt Pepa; a portrait which is deemed to be one of the most magnificent in the history of Spanish painting.
Your children will probably not be as talented as Picasso (after all, whose are?) but they can certainly look at his work to gain inspiration before enjoyable art activities!
James Christie writes for craft supplies company Baker Ross.
