14 of the Most Extraordinary Child Prodigies in History

By Rosie Pentreath

When he was just 16, the composer Felix Mendelssohn wrote his exceptional Octet, a piece of music that many agree marks the beginning of his maturity as a composer, and one that orchestras – including the ACO – still perform regularly on stages all over the world.

Half-a-century before Mendelssohn lived, another child prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was penning symphonies while he was still celebrating single-digit birthdays, and writing operas when he wasn’t much older.

And it’s not just music: history is full of child prodigies in all fields – from chess and mathematics, to more strategic thinkers, like Joan of Arc, who at a tender age commanded entire battle fields towards towering victory for her side. Swimmer Michael Phelps shattered a world record at 10; singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder signed a record contract before he could legally access his own earnings.

As we start our tour of music by JS Bach, and his prodigious champion, Mendelssohn, we celebrate some of the most mind-boggling prodigies from the fields of music, maths, sports and more.

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Music

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)

Mozart must be music’s most famous prodigy. He wrote a symphony by the time he was eight; his first opera at eleven. Tens of symphonies, operas, oratorios and other pieces of music followed in his full and impressive lifetime – which itself was tragically short. Mozart died when he was 35, leaving a history-changing legacy of music behind him.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)

Like Mozart, Mendelssohn made music incredibly young, and died tragically young. He performed his first public concert when he was nine, wrote 14 string symphonies between the ages of 12 and 14, and published his first piano quartet when he was 13. He wrote his irrepressibly joyful Octet at 16, a piece that many consider as the marker of “the beginning of his maturity as a composer.” It’s a little sobering to think what we had achieved at 16…

Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–1947)

Similarly prodigious was Felix’s older sister, Fanny Mendelssohn, a pianist and composer who memorised JS Bach’s whole Well Tempered Clavier by the age of 13. She wrote numerous songs and piano works, and performed as often as her brother, making a real name for herself as a pianist.

Alma Deutscher (2005–present)

Music prodigies aren’t just a thing of the past. British composer, pianist, violinist and conductor Alma Deutscher is 19 years old at the time this is being written, and she has already had a mind-blowing musical career: she wrote a piano sonata when she was 5, an opera – The Sweeper of Dreams – when she was 7, and a Violin Concerto by the time she was 9. Her opera, Cinderella, was premiered by Zubin Mehta in Vienna in 2016 – that means she would have been 11… 12 possibly – and she made her debut at Carnegie Hall in 2019 in a concert dedicated to her own compositions. Incredible.

Christian Li (2007–present)

Sticking with living legends, and the violinist Christian Li, a Decca recording artist, first picked up the instrument when he was 5, and six short years later, astonishingly became the youngest-ever winner of the Menuhin Competition, winning the joint Junior 1st Prize in Geneva where he play-conducted a movement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. in 2020, Christian became the youngest artist to sign with Decca Classics. His debut recording, released in August 2021, picked up five-star reviews across the board, and BBC Music Magazine wrote: “He brings thrilling virtuosity and myriad colours to Vivaldi’s fast movements and an exquisitely silky cantabile sound to the aria-like slow movements.”

Stevie Wonder (1950–present)

Wonder by name, wonder by nature… Singer-songwriter and producer Stephie Wonder was just 11 when he performed a record contract-winning song for an exec in Motown. because of Wonder's age, the label drew up a rolling five-year contract in which royalties would be held in trust until Wonder was 21.

Literature

Mary Shelley (1797–1851)

Mary  Shelley – daughter of influential writer, philosopher and women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft – wrote one of the most important classics of literature, Frankenstein, when she was just 19. Not only her gender then, makes the literary classic extraordinary, but also her age, and her ability to think when she was so young about such consuming and existential questions, which she housed in the body of a mad-scientist-made bionic human. Astonishing.   

Art

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973)

Famous cubist artist Pablo Picasso had an impressively young start – he completed his first oil painting when he was under 10, and he was admitted to Barcelona’s prestigious arts school when he was just 14.

Chess

Bodhana Sivanandan (2015–present)

Many chess-minded geniuses have been young, but Bodhana Sivanandan made history when she became the youngest ever player representing England nationally at the sport. She was almost 15 years younger than the next-youngest teammate, 23-year-old Lan Yao, at the time she joined the Women’s Team at the Chess Olympiad in 2024. “I found out yesterday after I came back from school, when my dad told me,” Bodhana told the BBC at the time of her appointment. “I was happy. I hope I’ll do well, and I’ll get another title.” This was all because at 5 she picked up chess as a hobby to pass the time in lockdown.

Mathematics

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)

The French mathematician Blaise Pascal was just 18 when he invented one of the world’s first mechanical calculators, changing the course of mathematics – and the pace of mathematics lessons, by the time we all came along – forever. The maths genius also developed probability theory, and contributed an astonishing amount to physics.

Leadership

Joan of Arc (1412–1431)

In 1429, a French peasant girl lead an army to victory. Joan of Arc was just 17 when she helped the French achieve victory in the siege of Orléans and turn things around in the bloody Hundred Year’s’ War in Medieval France. She cut off her hair, stepped into men’s clothing and, nine days after she arrived at the besieged city of Orléans, beat back the English and became a national hero. She was beheaded by the English, and recognised far too late – but recognised, nonetheless, when she was made a saint.

Sport

Tiger Woods (1975–present)

Golfer extraordinaire, Tiger Woods, was swinging the clubs at just 2 years old. 2 years old! Introduced to the greens when he was barely walking, then, the famous golfer was in golfing magazines and TV spots, including ABC’s That’s Incredible!, by the time he was 5, and winning competitions before he was a teenager. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest golfers of all time, and certainly the most famous of modern times.

Michael Phelps (1985–present)

American swimmer Michael Phelps was blowing people out of the water when he was 10 years old, achieving the title of national record holder before he hit double digits. Famed for his height, incredible wingspan and a double-jointed body that may explain his aquatic agility, Phelps has won 23 gold medals, and 28 in total, more than double the count of his nearest rivals.

Arisa Trew (2010–present)

Australian skateboarder Arisa Trew shot to fame in the 2024 Paris Olympics when, at just 14, she won the gold medal for women’s park skateboarding, becoming at the same time the first women's skateboarder to land a 720 and a 900 in competition. Born in Queensland, she started skateboarding at the age of 7 and was doing competitions around the years just a few years later.