Jay Greenberg

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Jay "Bluejay" Greenberg (born December 13, 1991, New Haven, Connecticut) is an American child prodigy composer who entered the Juilliard School in 2002 and has composed numerous works.

He came to the world's attention in part through the sponsorship of Juilliard instructor Samuel Zyman, who lauded Greenberg's youthful talent during a CBS News 60 Minutes broadcast on November 28, 2004, and again on November 26, 2006. "We are talking about a prodigy of the level of the greatest prodigies in history, when it comes to composition. I am talking about the likes of Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and Saint-Saëns."^[1] His primary composition instructor was Samuel Adler.

Greenberg composes primarily on his computer, utilizing a special music-notation program with which he can commit his ideas to paper and play his scores back on synthetic instruments. He has already written five symphonies and many other works. His most famous work is currently an Overture to 9-11, about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. At the time of the attacks, he was living in Macedonia but has since returned to the United States. His father is an American and makes a living as a Slavic linguist. His Israeli-born mother also has no musical background, but Jay found himself attracted to music from an early age, having begun playing the cello at the age of two after having displayed an obsession with the instrument by repeatedly drawing it and managing to spell out "CELLO" and having made his first attempts at composing at the age of three.

The Sony BMG Masterworks label released his first CD on August 15, 2006; it showcases his Symphony no. 5 and String Quintet as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of José Serebrier and by the Juilliard String Quartet with cellist Darrett Adkins respectively. He is perhaps the youngest composer ever to have signed an exclusive recording contract with a major record label.