The Good Musician

Ethan Bortnick is probably the most prominent example around, and we’ve written about him before. Just today, my roommate and I were surfing YouTube in search of some good performances, where we kept on stumbling upon child prodigies.

They scare me, and here’s why.

They Know What Their Doing

Prodigies of Ethan’s caliber are usually brought in at an age where a proper perception of how the world works gets disturbed. Ethan is a cute little kid, but following this DVD Trailer, I feel he’s gotten polished into one little, mean, marketing machine.

The fact that a kid 15 years younger than me knows and has been on more US TV Talk Show entices me to ask some strong questions. Will this kid grow up expecting to be on such shows regularly? What are his chances that in ten years, he’ll still be an acknowledged pianist?

Marketing Is a Long-Term Instrument

Ethan’s trailer markets a DVD associated with Animals, a disc I couldn’t find on Amazon myself (yet). That’s all very cute and nice, but in ten years, this guy isn’t going to be that cute and cuddly anymore. He’ll have to prove himself as a pianist first, because while a 6-year-old prodigy is spectacular material for US-Breakfast-TV, I’ve not seen a “normal” grown up classical musician on any mainstream show recently. At least not here in Europe, where we do get a higher percentage of classical music shown on public television than elsewhere.

All I’m saying is that the marketers behind Ethan are capitalizing on his age and “cuteness” right now, and since he isn’t of legal age yet, guess where all the money’s going.

It’s No-Ones Fault

I’m not condemning the parents, or finding fault with his piano teacher. It’s just a disturbing development that younger musicians are better musicians. I’m twenty, and I’ve practically lost my chances of studying music forever, because there’ll be 17 and 18-year olds that can play as well as or much better than me.
Bluntly put, the kid needs to learn how hard it is to get to the top, and being on top and falling off later isn’t going to help his cause.

I wish Ethan only the best, but that video truly freaked me out. I’d rather watch another episode of Lost and won’t get so scared.

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