Musical Prodigy hears full symphonies in his head - Full scholarship to Juilliard at age 10

Jay Greenberg, "Bluejay", age 12 (at time of TV broadcast)

This is an amazing story. Imagine HOW this can be possible.... by age 2 he was writing the word "cello" and drawing a cello despite never having seen one. By age 3 he started composing notes onto paper. Now at age 12 he's already written 5 full-length symphonies and has a full-ride scholarship to Juilliard!

He hears music all the time and can compose an entire symphony, every note for every instrument, in just a few hours. Jay says he hears the music involuntarily, in fully finished form, and just needs to write it down on a music program. He also hears in multiple channels - meaning he can hear multiple symphonies in his head at once!

Commissioned by the New Haven Symphony, in Connecticut, The Storm was written in just a few hours.






www.jaygreenbergmusic.com

"We are talking about a prodigy of the level of the greatest prodigies in history, when it comes to composition. I am talking about the likes of Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and Saint-Saëns."
~ Scott Pelley; Juilliard

* This was aired on CBS News 60 Minutes in November 2004 and again in 2006. I didn't see it on ATS via search.

I think this brings into question the true nature of Reality. There's obviously some connection to something greater than just his own mind.

Here's the ]i]60 Minutes piece

Serebrier conducts Greenberg - Symphony No. 5
(part 1 of 4)

Indeed.

Maybe he is the reincarnation of mozart or mendelssohn?

reply to post by Riip9110


Could be! It's mentioned in the story his hero is Beethoven.

reply to post by Thermo Klein


This is simply amazing. I've seen the video before.
What this kid can do blows me away.

I played music in school and some college.
But this kid us writing symphonies.
This means he has to be able to write music for all the instruments in the orchestra.
He has to know the pitch, key and ranges for the brass, woodwind, string and percussion instruments.
Not an easy task.

I'm awed at this kids ability.

reply to post by grey580


me too! I've been listening to Symphony 5 (linked above) and it's just beautiful. I don't have the words or experience to adequately describe music like this but the range, diversity, the feeling of it is just wonderful.

Has anyone listened ?
I do not think its good at all...
The music is so random and wild, has no start no middle and no finish...
Maybe its just me, too chaotic for me.

reply to post by R3KR


I listened to the whole thing and enjoyed it. Not much into classical music though so not a huge data base to compare too.

This is something I have wondered about, I hear music, but it's more like 20s, 30s jazz or most of it is, I can not write music so I can't do anything with it. I had this one that was a bluesie, harmonica and guitar piece, it was wild.
I kept asking who had left a radio on, or someone outside was playing a radio, finally I got earplugs, then I could really hear it.
The stuff I hear can be just about anything but is mostly jazz, some rock, classical, can be Hindu, one song was just one word but it was off the hook or what ever you want to call it.
I started to hum the tunes, for the most part I just amuse myself.
The jazz with all the horns is wild, I never liked jazz.

This is strange with this kid, he must be reincarnated or something.
With me I think it's like my right hemisphere playing around, most of the time I only hear this in my left ear, I don't know how the wiring works.

I'm not trying to brag I can do this, it's just reassuring, that I'm not crazy or something abbie normal.

I can relate to this kid, but it came late for me. I had a phase of wanting to play in a band when I was like 14, I had no musical knowledge at the time, but then one day I was able to comprehend every style/genre and create new music for each, I became a professor of music overnight studying all the sounds and ideas that follow.

I made this music in 15 minutes on my friends iMac with no prior experience making my own music.



my goal is to become a recognized video game/film composer eventually, cause it comes so naturally.

I treat music like a science, math and philosophy and a little bit like a game that I want to win, once you start with a few notes and a theme basis, it just starts to all flow naturally and you can't stop it.

I can see how he hears symphonies in his head, he just creates different atmospheres in the moment and the notes and everything sort of just falls into place.