Sacha Guitry

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A 10-year-old British boy is being hailed as a Mozart-like child prodigy by his music teacher after only four months of piano lessons. Shane Thomas practices for only four hours a week but already plays to a high standard and composes classical music scores in his head, British media reported Thursday. He first sat down at a piano at the age of seven and could play almost instantly by ear. Since then he has had formal lessons for just four months. "I told Dad when I was three that I could play but nobody took me seriously. When I'm at ... Read Full Story

A SCHOOLBOY who composes classical music in his head has been described as a modern day Mozart by experts. No one believed 10-year-old Shane Thomas when he first told his parents aged just three that he could play the piano. It wasn’t until he was seven years old that he got the chance to play one - and within two hours he was tinkling the ivories with both hands. Shane said: “I told Dad when I was three that I could play but nobody took me seriously. When I’m at school I can listen to the teacher and do my work while composing in ... Read Full Story

Two newly discovered piano pieces thought to be composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a child were played Sunday in his home city of Salzburg. The impressive pieces, a four-minute concerto for piano and a one-minute prelude, were composed around 1763-1764 when the prodigy was just seven or eight years old, the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg said. They were found in a music book belonging to Mozart's sister Nannerl, in the foundation's archives. Until now, all 18 scores in the music book had been attributed to Mozart's father Leopold or unknown composers. But two compositions near the end of the book were "in ... Read Full Story

Two newly discovered piano pieces, which scholars say were almost certainly composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, were presented Sunday in the composer's birthplace of Salzburg. The pieces, a four-minute concerto for piano and a one-minute prelude, were found in his sister Nannerl's music book, in the archives of the International Mozarteum Foundation. They were "in all probability, bordering on certainty" the works of the young Mozart, composed around 1763-1764 when the prodigy was seven or eight years old, the foundation said Sunday. The two pieces were performed in front of the media by clavichordist Florian Birsak on Mozart's own fortepiano at the family's old ... Read Full Story

Two newly discovered piano tunes believed to be written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as a child were played Sunday in the composer's home city of Salzburg. The impressive pieces, a four-minute concerto for piano and a one-minute prelude, were composed around 1763-1764 when the prodigy was just seven or eight years old, the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg said. They were found in a music book belonging to Mozart's sister Nannerl, in the foundation's archives. Until now, all 18 scores in the music book had been attributed to Mozart's father Leopold or unknown composers. But two compositions near the end of the book were ... Read Full Story