Jay Greenberg: Bluejay a music savant

12 Year Old Prodigy Jay Greenberg, Compared To Mozart

There is a composer studying at New York's renowned Juilliard School who some say is the greatest talent to come along in 200 years. He's written five full-length symphonies, and he's only 12 years old.

His name is Jay Greenberg, although he likes the nickname "Bluejay" because, he says, blue jays are small and make a lot of noise.

Greenberg says music just fills his head and he has to write it down to get it out. What's going on in Bluejay's head? Correspondent Scott Pelley spoke with him.
Jay wrote a piece, "The Storm," in just a few hours. It was commissioned by the New Haven Symphony in Connecticut.

When the last note sailed into the night, Jay navigated an unfamiliar stage, and then took a bow.

"We are talking about a prodigy of the level of the greatest prodigies in history when it comes to composition," says Sam Zyman, a composer. "I am talking about the likes of Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and Saint-Sans."

Zyman teaches music theory to Jay at the Juilliard School in New York City, where he's been teaching for 18 years.

"This is an absolute fact. This is objective. This is not a subjective opinion," says Zyman. "Jay could be sitting here, and he could be composing right now. He could finish a piano sonata before our eyes in probably 25 minutes. And it would be a great piece."

How is it possible? Jay told Pelley he doesn't know where the music comes from, but it comes fully written -- playing like an orchestra in his head.

"It's as if the unconscious mind is giving orders at the speed of light," says Jay. "You know, I mean, so I just hear it as if it were a smooth performance of a work that is already written, when it isn't."
All the kids are downloading music these days. But Jay, with his composing program, is downloading it from his head.

The program records his notes and plays them back --- that's when the computer is up and running. Jay composes so rapidly that he often crashes his computer.

"It's as if he's looking at a picture of the score, and he's just taking it from the picture, basically," says Zyman.

12 Year Old Music Prodigy - Bluejay - 60 minutes