Image via Wikipedia I would like to distinguish between a musical prodigy, a musical savant, and a musical genius: Musical Prodigy: Typically a young child with inordinate intelligence and musical talent (and usually with parents who recognize and push the child's abilities). Mozart was a musical prodigy and musical genius. Musical Savant: A severe mental disorder which allows for incredible musical talent in some cases Musical Genius: A person (young or old) with exceptional musical talent that may have developed as a child or taken years (or even decades) to perfect. Usually of high intelligence. The majority of serious composers that I know personally and/or professionally fall into this category. I do not consider student composers part of this group. In the day of YouTube, it is fairly easy to find hundreds of "musical prodigies". A recent example would be the young Jackie Evancho on the reality show America's Got Talent . Videos from a few years ago showed a yo...