Excerpted from the Daily Mail:
Thirty years ago, Derek Paravicini, Camilla Parker Bowles’s nephew, was born in the Royal Berkshire Hospital 14 weeks prematurely. Because he was born so early, Derek is blind. Derek’s verbal skills and emotional capacity is limited. His English is well-spoken, clear and loud, but his capacity for thought does not stretch far. He is an echolaliac, meaning that he echoes what you say to him, turning your question into a statement.
And yet, Derek has absolute pitch — a rare gift, meaning that, when he hears a chord with ten notes in it, he can identify every one. Most professional musicians can get about five. He can master any melody on earth, has a databank of thousands of songs in his head and can play any one of them at will, improvising as he goes. Ask him to play Ain’t No Sunshine, in B major (a key in which it was not composed) and in ragtime -- his fingers flutter across the keyboard in a hummingbird blur of staggering virtuosity.
Derek is also interesting in scientific terms too. Research has revealed that only one in 10,000 babies who are born at term have absolute pitch, but 40 per cent born prematurely have it, and it seems the brain capacity that would have gone elsewhere, into verbal reasoning or social skills, is transferred to music. Derek has appeared in two documentaries about genius savants, and has appeared on 60 Minutes. Now he is embarking on his first tour with a 20-piece orchestra.
Thirty years ago, Derek Paravicini, Camilla Parker Bowles’s nephew, was born in the Royal Berkshire Hospital 14 weeks prematurely. Because he was born so early, Derek is blind. Derek’s verbal skills and emotional capacity is limited. His English is well-spoken, clear and loud, but his capacity for thought does not stretch far. He is an echolaliac, meaning that he echoes what you say to him, turning your question into a statement.
And yet, Derek has absolute pitch — a rare gift, meaning that, when he hears a chord with ten notes in it, he can identify every one. Most professional musicians can get about five. He can master any melody on earth, has a databank of thousands of songs in his head and can play any one of them at will, improvising as he goes. Ask him to play Ain’t No Sunshine, in B major (a key in which it was not composed) and in ragtime -- his fingers flutter across the keyboard in a hummingbird blur of staggering virtuosity.
Derek is also interesting in scientific terms too. Research has revealed that only one in 10,000 babies who are born at term have absolute pitch, but 40 per cent born prematurely have it, and it seems the brain capacity that would have gone elsewhere, into verbal reasoning or social skills, is transferred to music. Derek has appeared in two documentaries about genius savants, and has appeared on 60 Minutes. Now he is embarking on his first tour with a 20-piece orchestra.
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