Derek Paravicini | |
|---|---|
 Paravicini in 2008 | |
| Born | 26 July 1979 Reading, Berkshire, England |
| Known for | Music ability |
| Relatives | Ann de Trafford (grandmother) Andrew Parker Bowles (uncle) |
| Website | derekparavicini |
Derek Paravicini (born 26 July 1979) is an English autistic savant known as a musical prodigy. He resides in London.
On 26 July 1979, Paravicini was born at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, [1] He was born extremely prematurely, at 25 weeks, along with a twin sister, who did not survive birth. [2] He was blinded by an overdosage of oxygen therapy given during his time in a neonatal intensive care unit. This also affected his developing brain, resulting in him having a severe learning disability. [3] He also is considered to be on the autism spectrum.
Paravicini has absolute pitch and can play any piece of music after hearing it once. He began playing the piano at the age of two when his nanny gave him an old keyboard. His parents arranged for him to attend the Linden Lodge School for the Blind in London. On his introductory visit to the school, in the music room he broke free from his parents, then headed straight for a piano being played. He pushed the player aside to take over. The player encouraged him and arranged first weekly and then daily lessons. [4] [5] At age seven, Paravicini gave his first concert, at Tooting Leisure Centre in South London.
In 1989, at the age of nine, Paravicini had his first major public concert at the Barbican Hall in London where he played with the Royal Philharmonic Pops Orchestra. In that year, he appeared on Wogan and was the main subject of a documentary called Musical Savants.
When he was older, he was presented with a Barnardo's Children's Champion Award by Diana, Princess of Wales, for his performances at age seven and nine. [3] More opportunities followed, including playing at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. [5]
Paravicini's first album Echoes of the Sounds to Be was released on 27 September 2006. His official biography, In the Key of Genius by Adam Ockelford, was published in the UK by Hutchinson ( ISBN 978-0091796129) on 3 May 2007.
Paravicini has appeared on various television programmes. He was featured on an episode of Channel 5's Extraordinary People, in an episode titled "The Musical Genius." This showed his journey to Las Vegas to play in a charity concert with another savant, Rex Lewis-Clack. He was interviewed twice by Lesley Stahl for 60 Minutes . [4] In 2009, he was one of the subjects of the NOVA series' episode "Musical Minds", featuring neurologist Oliver Sacks, on PBS. [6] He was featured a second time by 60 Minutes on 14 March 2010. [7] In 2009, he performed for the former Chancellor Alistair Darling, and unexpectedly played "Big Spender". [3]
On 26 August 2010, Paravicini was featured on the History Channel's Stan Lee's Superhumans . On the show, he was subjected to testing which verified his savantism and musical ability. After Paravicini improvised at two pianos with the composer Matthew King for a radio programme made for BBC Radio 4, [8] they collaborated on a new piano concerto entitled Blue. It was first performed in September 2011 by the Orchestra of St John's in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London. This is believed to be the first work for piano and orchestra ever composed for someone with learning disabilities. It was the subject of a feature on BBC News in September 2011. [9]
On 9 March 2013, Paravicini appeared with Adam Ockelford at TEDxWarwick. During the talk, [10] Ockelford discussed Paravicini's amazing musical abilities, while Paravicini demonstrated them.
On 27 December 2017, Paravicini was featured on an episode of Mind Field with Michael Stevens. The episode explored his musical ability and the science of the mind of a savant. [11]
Paravicini is the son of Captain Nicolas Vincent Somerset Paravicini and Mary Ann Parker Bowles, sister of Andrew Parker Bowles. Paravicini's aunt by marriage is Camilla, Queen consort of the United Kingdom. [3]
After his parents divorced, there were legal questions raised about Paravicini's care. On 13 May 2010, Paravicini made legal history when the United Kingdom's last remaining secret court was opened for the first time to discuss his future care. The Court of Protection, which controls the future of adults incapable of managing their own affairs, appointed Paravicini's family to look after his welfare and commercial future. Until that legal decision was made, the Official Solicitor from the Ministry of Justice had been looking after his affairs. [3]
He is the grandson of Lt.-Col. Vincent Rudolph Paravicini and his wife Elizabeth Hope, Baroness Glendevon (née Maugham), a great-grandson of author W. Somerset Maugham and great-great-grandson of Thomas John Barnardo. His stepmother is Susan Rose "Sukie" Phipps (born 1941), who was brought up by Fitzroy Maclean, one of the models for James Bond. His cousins include food writer Tom Parker Bowles and Laura Lopes, the children of Queen Camilla and ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles. [12]
Savant syndrome is a phenomenon where someone demonstrates exceptional aptitude in one domain, such as art or mathematics, despite significant social or intellectual impairment.
Leslie Lemke is a blind American savant who is most notable for his work as a musician.
Anthony Thomas "Tony" DeBlois is a blind American autistic savant and musician.
Brigadier Andrew Henry Parker Bowles is a retired British Army officer. He is the former husband of Queen Camilla, now the wife of King Charles III.
Daniel Tammet is an English writer and savant. His memoir, Born on a Blue Day (2006), is about his early life with Asperger syndrome and savant syndrome, and was named a "Best Book for Young Adults" in 2008 by the American Library Association's Young Adult Library Services magazine. His second book, Embracing the Wide Sky, was one of France's best-selling books of 2009. His third book, Thinking in Numbers, was published in 2012 by Hodder & Stoughton in the United Kingdom and in 2013 by Little, Brown and Company in the United States and Canada. His books have been published in over 20 languages.
Mary Elizabeth Hope, Baroness Glendevon, was the only child of the English writer W. Somerset Maugham by his then-mistress Syrie Wellcome, a daughter of orphanage founder Thomas John Barnardo.
Matthew James "Matt" Savage is an American autistic savant musician.
Jamie Parker is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Harry Potter in the original cast for the West End play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, for which he received a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play and a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play. He also received a nomination for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play as a member of the original Broadway version.
Extraordinary People is a television documentary series broadcast on Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. Each programme follows the lives of people with a rare medical condition and/or unusual ability. People featured have or had rare illnesses such as rabies and eye cancer. Many of these people do activities previously thought impossible for people in their condition.
"Half-Wit" is the fifteenth episode of the third season of House and premiered on the FOX network on March 6, 2007. Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Dave Matthews guest stars in the episode as Patrick, a savant and piano prodigy who comes under the care of Dr. House for a rare movement disorder. Dr. House also is suspected to have cancer by his staff. Also appearing is Kurtwood Smith. The episode marks the directorial debut of executive producer Katie Jacobs. The patient in the episode closely resembles real world savant Derek Paravicini.
Julian John Somerset Hope, 2nd Baron Glendevon was a British opera producer and nobleman.
Matthew King is a British composer, pianist, and educator. His works include opera, piano and chamber music, and choral and orchestral pieces. He has been described by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen’s Music, as “one of Britain's most adventurous composers, utterly skilled, imaginative, and resourceful."
Exceptional memory is the ability to have accurate and detailed recall in a variety of ways, including hyperthymesia, eidetic memory, synesthesia, and emotional memory. Exceptional memory is also prevalent in those with savant syndrome and mnemonists.
Musical Minds is a Nova documentary based on neurologist Oliver Sacks's 2007 book Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain about music and the human brain aired on June 30, 2009 on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Linden Lodge School for the Blind is a specialist sensory and physical college located in Wimbledon, South London, England. It educates visually impaired children aged between two and nineteen, including those who are multi-disabled visually impaired.
Rex Lewis-Clack is an American pianist, considered a prodigious musical savant.
Blue is a piano concerto by British composer Matthew King, composed specially for the autistic savant pianist Derek Paravicini. The concerto grew out of an improvisation session between the pianist and composer for BBC Radio 4 programme called The Inner World of Music. during which King and Paravicini extemporised in numerous styles. Fascinated by Paravicini's ability to improvise using advanced harmonies, similar to Ravel or Scryabin, King improvised with him for several sessions, slowly devising a work that came to use a number of themes from Gershwin as the basis for a large single movement piece in extended Sonata Form. A number of themes appear upside down. The concerto begins with a depiction of musical chaos, out of which thematic ideas gradually appear.
Derek Amato is an American composer and pianist who sustained a head injury on October 27, 2006, and subsequently became a musical savant.
Kodi Taehyun Lee is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and savant. At 22, he rose to fame on the 14th season of America's Got Talent.
Adam Ockelford is a Professor of Music and Director of the Applied Music Research Centre at the University of Roehampton, London. He wrote the official biography of Derek Paravicini entitled "In the Key of Genius: The Extraordinary Life of Derek Paravicini".
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