Child prodigies, maybe
How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Apparently it takes more than practice. In 1989, violinist Sarah Chang made her solo debut with the New York Philharmonic. That performance was followed by the release of her first album a year later. Her playing was praised as “miraculous.” The BBC said she played with “verve and intelligence.” Chang was 10, a true child prodigy. Child prodigies are a not-infrequent phenomenon in the music business, and have been known to arrive on the public stage with quite a bit of fanfare. Many famous musicians across the centuries have been child prodigies. Mozart and Beethoven, to name two of the most famous, began composing at ages 5 and 14, respectively. As a musician herself, Chia-Jung Tsay witnessed this trumpeting of child musicians for nearly two decades. “I remember one competition where there was a girl who was 7 or 8, who was physically carried up to the...