Arts Festival Touts Child Prodigies

William Chen isn’t much of a talker.

But what he doesn’t say aloud, he has no problem expressing from behind a piano.

The 9-year-old is a musical child prodigy—or in his case, “a child who plays the piano like a grown-up,” he explained during a telephone interview last week—who will be performing at the third annual Southampton Arts Festival this weekend.

And as one of a few dozen prodigies under the age of 18 in the United States, he is part of a subset of children whose genes could hold the cure to autism, leading to a partnership between this year’s festival and autism research, according to co-founder and pianist Elena Baksht.

“Child prodigies hold the key in the genetic system that blocks the negative symptoms of autism and leaves the positive,” Ms. Baksht, who will be performing during the festival as well, said during a telephone interview last week. “Since a lot of the musicians who participate in the festival were child prodigies themselves, it made such perfect sense for us to give back to the research. Part of the proceeds are benefiting the research, and we’re introducing these musicians to our audiences, giving them the opportunity to be heard.”

William, along with six other musicians, including fellow child prodigy Marta Bagratuni on cello and voice, will play two East End concerts—one on Sunday, August 19, at the Southampton Cultural Center and the second on Wednesday, August 22, during a benefit dinner at Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack. Each concert will be preceded by talks with Dr. Joanne Ruthsatz on her research that links child prodigies and children with autism.

The developmental psychologist first made the connection 14 years ago when she discovered that her first case study, a 6-year-old musical child prodigy, had an autistic cousin.

“I went, ‘Oh my gosh. That’s what this is,’” Dr. Ruthsatz recalled during a telephone interview last week. “‘These kids are working without the deficits of autism.’ I wanted to see if it was going to play itself out like that or if it was a freak accident.”

So far, the majority of Dr. Ruthsatz’s results have followed her gut reaction. Child prodigies, or kids who master their talent exceptionally young and exponentially fast, and reach professional status by age 10, seem to possess a genetic modifier that allows them to suppress detrimental autistic traits and expel only the talent—a “happy mutation,” as Dr. Ruthsatz calls it.

Earlier this month, the psychologist enlisted the help of Nobel Prize-winner Dr. James Watson—a molecular biologist, geneticist and zoologist credited as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953—whom she met this past spring at a Southampton Arts Festival event in Manhattan. She asked Dr. Watson to extract DNA from her prodigies and compare it to that of autistic children, she said.

“He said, ‘You’re right about this. You’re exactly right about this and I want to do the study for you,’” she said of their initial meeting. “I think if we’re right, and he says we’re right, the cure to autism could be more simple than we ever imagined if we can isolate the gene. We think we know where it is. We’re so close now. I’m not allowed to say much.”

One of Dr. Ruthsatz’s culinary child prodigies, 17-year-old Greg Grossman, will be preparing the benefit dinner. She hasn’t yet had any contact with William Chen.

“But I’m looking forward to it,” she said. “I watched him on YouTube. Fabulous. I’m excited to see him. These are little stars at a very young age. It’s mesmerizing.”

At the East End concerts, William will perform two pieces by Sergei Rachmaninoff: “Melodie, Op. 3, No. 3” and “Polichinelle, Op. 3 No. 4.”

“‘Polichinelle’ is a sharp piece,” William explained. “‘Polichinelle’ is a fast piece and ‘Melodie’ is a slow piece.”

“‘Melodie’ is very lyrical and tender, though it has a tremendous crescendo in the middle,” his teacher, Michael Thomopoulos, director of the Palisades School of Music in New Jersey, added. “We chose ‘Polichinelle’ on purpose to be a contrast for ‘Melodie.’”

Mr. Thomopoulos first met William four years ago, he said. At the time, he didn’t know whether his student had an ounce of talent.

“It showed, honestly, rather quickly,” he recalled. “Not so much musically but in terms of his concentration. He’s able to express what he’s feeling in the music. If you come to the performances, you’ll see what I’m talking about. He’s not so expressive verbally but he’s extremely expressive pianistically.”

The young boy practices for at least two hours every day, sometimes four, William said.

“It’s painstaking. It takes many hours to do,” Mr. Thomopoulos reported. “It doesn’t just flow out of him. What he said about himself earlier? He’s very advanced for his age, but he works hard. And the music doesn’t, he doesn’t just wake up one morning and play beautifully.”

“Most of the time, it’s not so easy,” William said.

“But do you like playing in recitals?” his teacher asked.

“Most of the time.”

“You like getting all dressed up in your tux?”

“Yes.”

“You like being able to express your passion?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like being able to explode at the piano?”

“Yes.”

“Do you like being able to cry at the piano?”

“Nope.”

Mr. Thomopoulos burst into laughter. William quietly joined in.

“He becomes a different person when he’s at the piano,” Mr. Thomopoulos said. “He’s kind of shy and he’s content even to play by himself. But with music, he has a kind of charisma that you can feel. He has a way of touching an audience and my guess is that it’s wonderful for him, that he has this outlet to be able to explode at the piano or be goofy at the piano, or do crazy and wacky and exciting and dark things at the piano that he doesn’t feel to comfortable to be able to express verbally.”

Mr. Thomopoulos breathed out an amused sigh and said, “He’s a man of few words.”

The third annual Southampton Arts Festival will hold two concerts on the East End, kicking off on Sunday, August 19, at 5 p.m. at the Southampton Cultural Center. Admission is $20, or $10 for students under 21 with ID. For more information, call 287-4377 or visit scc-arts.org. A benefit concert and dinner will be held on Wednesday, August 22, at 7:30 p.m. at Wölffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack. Call for ticket prices. A portion of the proceeds from the festival and benefit dinner will support child prodigy and autism research, and benefit Long Island and New York organizations for children with autism. For details, call (917) 803-7879 or email office@southamptonartsfestival.org.