'Little Miss Mozart' composer rejects comparison

6 November 2013, 10:47

"I want to be Alma, not Mozart!" Eight-year-old composer Alma Deutscher rejects comparisons to the great classical genius, and wants to forge her own musical path.

Child prodigy Alma Deutscher plays violin and piano and has just composed her second opera - even though she's only eight years old.

Speaking on America's Today show, she said: "I love Mozart very much, he's probably my favourite composer, but I don't really like hearing people calling me Little Miss Mozart because I don't like being called little - I'm very big! - and secondly, if I just wrote everything Mozart wrote again it would be boring. I want to be Alma, not Mozart."

Despite rejecting comparisons, it's easy to see why the young British composer is likened to the great classical composer. The young Mozart toured extensively as a young boy, composing his first symphony at the age of eight.

The young musician visited America in late October, playing a few of her own compositions on The Ellen Degeneres show and the Today show. Her album, The Music of Alma Deutscher, is out now.