We love it here at the Two Moors Festival when young people strike up a serious interest in classical music so you can imagine how happy we were to hear that seven-year-old Alma Deutscher had composed her own opera – and it had been highly commended by the English National Opera.
Her father uploaded a few videos of her work on YouTube and they have since received over 300,000 hits – good going for someone still in primary school!
Alma, who wrote her first sonata aged six and her opera The Sweeper of Dreams a year later, told the Daily Mail: “The music comes to me when I’m relaxing. I go and sit down on a seat or lie down. I like thinking about fairies a lot, and princesses, and beautiful dresses.”
Apparently, her best ideas come to her when she’s sat on her garden swing.
Here’s a video of her playing one of her own works.