The next Mozart? Just what classical music needs?

Suddenly Alma Deutscher is all over my social media. Is anyone else experiencing this?

It seems as though network television still exists and 60 Minutes did a piece on the 12-year-old British composer. That’s right, 12 years old.

Deutscher has musical abilities which some are comparing to Mozart. That's right, the Mozart.

Deutscher is not only composing music at a young age she is improvising at the keyboard and performing her own pieces on the violin as well. These are three activities for which Mozart was well known in his youth.

It sounds as though Deutscher has received some sound counsel regarding comparisons. She wants to be the first Alma instead of the second Mozart.

It has been said that comparison kills potential, and I feel that holds true in most instances. That Alma Deutscher has embraced the concept at such a delicate time in life might be more impressive than the opera she wrote at age 10 with a new take on the Cinderella story.

The plot twist is that Cinderella writes music and the prince writes poetry. Cinderella sets one of the prince’s poems to music and performs it at the ball thereby showing that they have complementary passions and abilities. They are soulmates in more than good looks and shoe size.

Whether that was Alma’s idea or that of a parent or mentor makes little difference to me. It works as a plot line, and Alma has written music which is beautiful.

She has said that she is not concerned with how difficult her music is to perform but rather with how beautiful it is. Thank God.

This could be just what classical music needs. That might sound like a lot to place upon a young person, but I’m not talking about a young person. I’m talking about a composer who isn’t afraid to write music which is beautiful first and foremost. For too many decades now, classical music composers have been producing ugly music and calling it original or groundbreaking or conceptual or relentless or revolutionary. Most of it is none of those things. It's just stupid, and ugly.

Do I think Alma Deutscher will write in the mid-18th-Century style for her entire career? Maybe, maybe not. Whatever the case, what she is writing now is delightful, truthful, and — I'll say it again —most importantly beautiful.

Believe it or not, there are some haters out there. It seems inconceivable to hate on Alma Deutscher, but we do live in a haters' paradise in some ways.