One of the most extraordinary things about the world we live in today is that is possible for people who would have had no way to be heard or discovered to find a large audience. We are all familiar with child writers but much less so with child composers. This is an exciting time in the history of music. For the first time, we are beginning to see a real body of work by child composers.
If you are a parent or a teacher please introduce your students to these composers. If, by chance, you are a music teacher and already do some composing with your students, then please get in touch with us. We'd love to hear what your students are doing. We are always looking for music by kids to be included in digital editions of Stone Soup. You may write to me, William Rubel, at william@stonesoup.com.
If you have an interest in child composers and would like to help develop this page, please contact me.
- Alma Deutscher is a British composer born in 2005. I include here a violin concerto and a short orchestral piece, "Dance of the Solent Mermaids", composed when she was nine years old. If you go to Alma Deutcher's YouTube channel you will find more work by her. As of this writing, early 2015, she is writing an opera version of Cinderella.
- Jay Greenberg was born in 1991. A "Sixty Minutes" television episode featured Jay and his music. Jay began studying at Julliard, the music school in New York, when he was ten. By age fourteen he had written five symphonies. Jay records with Sony. There are a few of his pieces available at YouTube, but his earliest works do not seem to be publicly available. Jay Greenberg's Symphony Number 5 & Quartet for Strings is available from Amazon.com. You can listen to a portion of Jay's Symphony Number 5 at Youtube.
- Emily Bear, born 2001, is a young American composer. As is clear from the Wikipedia entry (click on the link under her name), Emily was discovered early and has lived a very public life as a composer. This 22 minute 2014 documentary covers Emily's early years as a pianist and composer. Emily has an active web site that I refer you to for performance information and also samples of her music. She writes both classical music and Jazz and is a composer who I think most children will find appealing. Her Jazz Album, Diversity, is available from Amazon.com. She has a large channel at YouTube that includes music from various periods. This Bumble Bookie was recorded when Emily was 13. I enjoy his YouTube clip of Emily Bear at age 12 playing around in a piano store playing two pianos at one time. She is playing a piece she wrote. I think that many children will be engaged seeing a child composer being obviously playful.
- Jahan Raymond, 2002, is an American pianist and composer. Jahan Raymond is the first child composer to published by Stone Soup. His piano composition, Starchaser, appeared in a 2013 Stone Soup iPad issue. Jahan has an extensive YouTube channel. This piano composition, "Blur of Motion" was written and performed by Janan when he was nine. It well represents the extemporaneous feel of his playing. Perhaps the best way to introduce yourself to Jahan's music is through his webiste. There are good number of videos posted there.
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