10-year-old music prodigy becomes youngest signed to agent

A ten-year-old musical prodigy has become the youngest British composer signed by an agent after writing her first full-length opera.

Alma Deutscher has been snapped up by Askonas Holt, the classical music agency, after the expert who talent-spotted a young Sir Simon Rattle realised her potential.

The young composer, who has been playing the piano and violin since she was a toddler, now hopes to see her first full-length opera, inspired by Cinderella, performed on a UK stage.

Miss Deutscher’s father, Guy, said the family had organised her blossoming career themselves until now, but had found themselves inundated with invitations to perform all over the world.

Now, he said, they hope to tailor her schedule to achieve balance between her love of playing and remaining a "lovely, happy, down-to-earth" child.

Martin Campbell-White, who has worked with Sir Simon since he was 18, will take Miss Deutscher under his wing to nurture her gifts.

Jilly Clarke, director of Askonas Holt, said: "We strongly believe in nurturing talent and we feel that Alma Deutscher is truly exceptional."

Her father, an Israeli-born academic, added: "It's wonderful. We're very proud, of course.

"In the last year, we realised that we can't really manage everything ourselves - she has been performing a lot and even though she loves it it could become too much.

"The first priority is always that she continues to be a happy child. This will help us with the challenge of helping her to fulfil her potential, while first and foremost allowing her to have a happy childhood, and stay a sane, normal, down-to-earth human being."

The 10-year-old was born in England and now lives in Dorking, Surrey, with her parents and younger sister.

She began playing the piano when she was two years old and the violin when she was three, before moving on to her own compositions at the age of four.

Then, she created an opera about a pirate called Don Alonzo, progressing to her first full piano sonata two years later, and - at 7 - a very short opera called The Sweeper of Dreams.

While her father, an accomplished flautist, and her mother, a former organ scholar at Oxford University, used to play instruments with her at home, Mr Deutscher admitted they had given up several years ago after her talents far outstripped theirs.

After performances in England, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Uruguay, Spain, USA, Japan, Israel and Switzerland, her latest project is a full length opera, Cinderella, which received its world premiere in Israel in July 2015.

Her version tells the story of a step-mother who owns an opera company, with Cinderella as a young composer with "beautiful melodies springing into her head".