The Perils of Ethan Bortnick
Ever heard of Ethan Bortnick? Take a few minutes and watch this video:
I’m not sure what to think. I’ve seen videos of Ethan on Jay Leno, and in various places elsewhere. Some random thoughts:
- He’s talented.
- He might be being pushed by media and parents.
- His teacher practically decides over his success or failure.
His teacher said two very important things:
a) Ethan plays music beautifully, but doesn’t relate to it yet.
b) He will be such a wonderful gift to all of us to promote classical music.
I think the second reason is where the danger lies. Ethan could be abused just as a media sensation and tool to promote classical music. While I understand the desperation of the industry, I think it’s wrong to set a little child as the price.The difference between Ethan and Mozart are that Mozart probably understood more of what was going on at a very young age. Mozart wasn’t just a prodigy in music, he was pretty darn business smart. And Ethan, albeit just six, should take care of his image, as following video shows:
I wish Ethan best of luck, but I also hope he doesn’t get to conditioned to play in front of big audiences. The bigger they are, they greater the fall.
What are your thoughts? I’m really interested in hearing some of your ideas and worries regarding child prodigies and Ethan in particular.
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POSTED IN: Marketing & Branding
2 opinions for The Perils of Ethan Bortnick
Allyson
Oct 14, 2007 at 10:55 pm
I am so in agreement with you. I am so worried about Ethan. Even though I think he is the cutest little boy I have ever seen, it seems that he is being exploited. I don’t think children should be forced to do things like play in concerts in front of hundreds of people, if they don’t want to. I think it is not anything but selfishness for parent, and others, to exploit children. Whether it is for financial gain, or just self gratification, or whatever the reason. Really hurts me. Ethan might be wanting to appear in some of these events. But I know from his interview with Jay Leno that there was a real large one he didn’t want to play in. He said “I had to.” Who made him? No one should make him.
dr shill
Nov 11, 2007 at 4:29 pm
Not a musician but came across this kid, started looking for info about him - glad you’re here. I looked over his Wikipedia entry and it seems so obvious that someone (I’d think a relative) is “managing” his entry. One person tried twice to insert something about him being a “financial scam”. Worse, you look on his site at his event calendar, someone really is whoring this kid out.
Seems like a great little kid but at this point, what’s he being raised to turn into?
Just glad to see at least the question being raised somewhere.
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