11-Year-Old Black Prodigy Will Become World's Youngest Orchestra Conductor

11-year-old Matthew Smith to become the youngest conductor in the world of a 75-piece orchestra.
This 11-year-old boy hopes to make history as the youngest conductor of a 75-piece orchestra.

Continue Reading


U.K. born Matthew Smith is a music prodigy who will become the youngest conductor to ever lead an orchestra of this size. And while Smith has only been practicing for a few weeks, he's already a Grade 5 standard violinist. He also plays the guitar, drums, viola and piano.

On April 2nd, Matthew Smith will make his debut at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall, where he will conduct the city's orchestra, performing Johann Staruss' operetta Die Fledermaus. If successful, he will break the previous record of 14-year-old boy who previously directed a Venezuelan youth orchestra.

Smith first drew inspiration for the idea after watching a video of a 7-year-old conducting a 9-minute video piece. “I’d seen a video of a young child conducting the nine-minute piece and really wanted to give it a go. I managed to conduct the whole thing a few weeks later," he told the London Economic.

"At first I was nervous, but you just get used to doing it, but the thing is, you just have to keep counting the beats."

Smith appears pretty confident that he'll be successful. “I have been practicing a lot and can now conduct the whole piece from memory and I’m really excited to put my skills to the test and conduct a real orchestra.”

What are your thoughts after watching the video of 11-year-old Matthew Smith? ************************************

Mike "Orie" Mosley is the managing editor for CurlyNikki.com and a cultural advocate from St. Louis. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Arts, Entertainment & Media Management from Columbia College Chicago and a Masters in Higher Education Administration from LSU. He is also the founder of www.afrotrak.com. In his spare time, he's probably listening to hip hop & neo soul music, hitting up brunch or caught up in deep conversations about Black music. You can follow him on Twitter @mike_orie or on Instagram @mikeorie