Shepherding a child’s gift

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 20th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day. Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: A special gift for music.

When I was just 11 years old, I was the Sunday School piano player for my little church in Mobile, Alabama. But I was no child prodigy. I just practiced really hard and loved playing for the Lord.

REICHARD: That sounds like you today, Myrna. And now we’ll meet another child who also loves to play music and has parents who support his talent.

Here’s WORLD Correspondent Amy Lewis with the story.

AUDIO: [PRELUDE]

AMY LEWIS: In the balcony of the church, Izaak Atlas Schwartz slips on soft organmaster shoes and plays an organ prelude without any printed music.

Izaak’s ability to play the keyboard came in handy when his church of about 80 members briefly went online in 2021 and needed someone to accompany the hymns while the church musician was on vacation.

IZAAK SCHWARTZ: And that was my first time actually playing the actual organ for the church.

A few months later the church musician moved to the Midwest.

IZAAK: …then I became the permanent organist.

Izaak was 10 years old.

For the past three years, Izaak has been the main musician for Knowlton Presbyterian Church in New Jersey, alternating between the piano and the organ.

AUDIO: [Organ music]

IZAAK: I like the kind of music that gets played on it and then all the different stops that can sound like all kinds of different things. They can get really loud, which is how I like to play it sometimes.

He’s quite young to be the church’s primary musician, but he likes earning money to feed his appetite for musical instruments.

IZAAK: I play the banjo, the mountain dulcimer, the guitar, the mandolin, the fiddle, the dobro, the piano, the organ. I have an accordian that I kind of know how to play. Did I already say the oboe?

Plus, he has a cello concert next week. And he plays in a bluegrass band called Long Acre Hollow.

Izaak’s gifts are exceptional. But he’s not the first child to be so musically accomplished. One notable example is Mozart, often regarded as one of Western music’s greatest composers. He’s also one of the most famous child prodigies. At age three, Mozart watched his father teach his sister how to play the keyboard. Within two years, he was composing simple music. When he was seven, his father took him and his gifted older sister around Europe to play for powerful people.

David Feldman taught human development at Tufts University. He told DW History and Culture that gifted children definitely have rare abilities. But that’s not all it takes to succeed.

DAVID FELDMAN: It also requires the efforts of those around the child to be equally focused and equally dedicated and equally wise about how to support and promote that talent.

That wisdom includes knowing how much time to devote to such a novel gift.

AMANDA SCHWARTZ: It’s been a struggle probably to find balance. Because he’s so talented, you have so many people pulling you saying ‘You’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do this…’

That’s Amanda Schwartz, Izaak’s mother.

AMANDA: I think I spent probably three weeks away from home with just Izaac last summer doing some of these things because of the opportunities.

Izaak’s parents and three siblings all play multiple instruments, but none of them love playing quite as much as Izaak does. His mom is willing to see where his talents take him. But she keeps a close eye on him.

AMANDA: Like, when you have a kid with talent like that, as long as they’re still enjoying it, I'm willing to do all the things to try to help him make it but, um, whenever I see him stressing out, I’m like, Izaak, maybe it’s time to take a step back. You know, let’s focus on other things. Let’s do something fun.

Izaak started picking out Mozart’s songs on the piano at age 3, two years before he started taking lessons. Amanda says that early start on the piano helped Izaak learn other instruments.

AMANDA: I feel like because he started there and because he developed his ear really early on, whenever he started learning a different instrument, it just kind of came naturally. He, like, just knew the pitches and everything.

Even though he can read music well, American folk music is different. For each new instrument, he first figures out how it’s tuned so he can play scales.

IZAAK: So when I figure out the scales, and then the chords, I basically know everything I need to, and then I just practice and then I get better at it.

He wrote a banjo song named after his hometown.

IZAAK: OK, actually I'll play Bartonsville Breakdown. I don't know how well my fingers are warmed up…

After church, Izaak and his family drive to a festival in Pennsylvania. A band needs a banjo player, and they’ve asked Izaak to fill in.

AUDIO: [Izaak solo]

Even with his talent in high demand, Izaak says he just wants to glorify God with what he has.

IZAAK: Well, I thank him all the time for my musical gifts. I’m pretty sure he wants me to use it for, for things like playing at church already, so yeah.

AUDIO: [Gloria Patri, organ with congregation]

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Amy Lewis in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania.

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