Connacht Tribune
Exceptional child prodigy for Galway performance
Lifestyle – Judy Murphy talks to the mother of 11-year-old Alma Deutscher whose full-length opera has got rave reviews
Being the parent of a gifted child is both rewarding and challenging, as Janie Steen and Guy Deutscher know from first-hand experience.
Their 11-year-old daughter, Alma, has been hailed as a musical prodigy with no less a character than Stephen Fry comparing her to a young Mozart.
‘Balance’ is a word that her mother Janie uses several times during our interview in advance of Alma’s performance in the Town Hall Theatre, Galway as part of Music for Galway’s Mid-Winter Festival. Alma, who’ll be 12 in February, will be performing several of her own compositions as well as music by other child prodigies including Mozart and Schubert.
Last month the Deutschers were in Vienna where Alma’s first full-length opera, Cinderella, opened to rave reviews. It’s just the latest achievement from this talented child who began playing piano at the age of two and violin aged three. Since then, she has performed as a soloist in Germany, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Uruguay, USA, Israel, and Japan.
At four, Alma stared composing music and by five, had performed for the then Israeli President Shimon Peres. At six she composed her first piano sonata and at seven, a short opera about a pirate. Her debut CD was released in 2013 and featured her compositions up to the age of eight. Her first piece for a symphony orchestra, Dance of the Solent Mermaids, was premiered in the UK 2015. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
“With the business of motherhood, you just grow into it,” says Janie of what it’s like to realise that your child is so gifted. “It’s difficult for me to say what it’s like because this is my only experience.”
Being a mother to any child means constantly being surprised, she adds, sounding like somebody who takes it all in her stride.
She and Guy want to give Alma and their younger daughter, seven-year-old Helen, a regular childhood, where they have freedom to climb trees, go to gymnastics and play in the park.
But from an early age, it was obvious that Alma was exceptionally musical.
As an infant, she responded to music by dancing and wriggling and whenever she heard a song, she could sing it back in the same pitch, says Janie.
Israeli-born Guy and Janie, whose family are Irish, met as students in Cambridge where both went on to do doctorates. Guy, a former fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, is a linguist and Janie, an organ scholar at Oxford, taught literature. Guy is also an amateur flautist while Janie teaches piano.
Janie was reared mostly in England, but enjoyed long holidays in Ireland, where both her parents had been born. Her father retained such a deep attachment to the place of his birth that he taught his children Irish ballads, including the works of Percy French.
“I think it was as a way of teaching us music,” Janie feels.
These days, thanks to Alma, music has become even more central to her life.
Janie and Guy both work from home as much as possible, so they can focus on Alma’s musical career and on rearing the girls, both of whom are home-schooled.
Like much that has happened since they became parents, the home-schooling came as a surprise, Janie says. Alma had been granted a place at a good local school and went along to an induction day, but came home disappointed because she hadn’t learned how to read and write in that time.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
