Some children have amazing musical skills from a young age. We pick ten of the most jaw-dropping young performers of recent decades...

1. Vanessa-Mae

Vanessa-Mae shot to fame in the 90s as a teenager, bringing classical music into the mainstream with her stylised music videos and hit album The Violin Player. At age 13 she was the youngest soloist to record both the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky violin concertos. 

2. Alma Deutscher

At only nine years old, British-born Alma Deutscher has been compared to Mozart, being a virtuoso both on the piano and the violin. She is also a composer, having written two operas, and famously performed on the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

3. Yo-Yo Ma

Yo-Yo Ma is world-renowned cellist who has released more than 75 albums and won 15 Grammy Awards. He started to give concerts aged five, and at just seven years old he performed for President Eisenhower and President Kennedy. Here here is, aged seven, performing with his sister Yeou-Cheng on the piano.

4. Jacob Velasquez

A six-year-old pianist from Florida dubbed ‘Baby Beethoven’, Jacob Velasquez has a photographic memory and at the age of five was said to be able to learn an entire sonata in one afternoon, despite only playing the piano for a year.

5. Herbie Hancock

Renowned jazz pianist Herbie Hancock started studying the piano at seven. Just four years later he performed the first movement of a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a young people's concert.

6. Avery Molek

Avery is an eight-year-old drummer from Washington, who became a You Tube sensation in 2013 with his version of Van Halen’s ‘Hot For Teacher’. He’s since played with the rock band KISS and performed on the popular TV show Good Morning America.

7. Charlotte Church

The little girl from Cardiff became an opera-singing sensation when she performed on Jonathan Ross’s The Big Big Talent Show, aged 11. She went on to have global success, performing for the US president and releasing a hit album, Voice of an Angel.

8. Lang Lang

Chinese-born pianist Lang Lang began playing at age three and seven years later went on to study at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music. When he was 13, he played the Op. 10 and Op. 25 études by Chopin at the Beijing Concert Hall and also won first place at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians in Japan.

9. Derek Trucks

Cited by Rolling Stones Magazine as one of the greatest guitarists of all time, Florida-born Derek Trucks was touring by 11, and within a few years had formed his own band, The Derek Trucks Band. He went on to perform with the likes of Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana.

10 Alexander Prior

Born in the UK, Alexander began composing aged eight and enrolled at the St. Petersberg Conservatory in Russia when he was just 13. He’s since composed many works, including ballets and operas, and when he was 16 he fronted Channel 4’s show The World’s Greatest Musical Prodigies.

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