Guests at the 2008 Heart of Variety may remember an exceptional young man by the name of Jack Stacey,who gave a stunning performance at the event. Jack, who is a musical savant - a gift among autistic children, recently returned from an intensive study trip to London to further his musical education. Jack showed an exceptional talent on the piano from a very young age - being able to play complex pieces of music after only hearing them once. Variety the children's charity and other organisations were delighted to fund Jack‘s visit to London to work with a professor who specialises in working with musical savants. "Jack's trip to the UK was nothing short of a life changing experience for him. The work that Jack did with Professor Adam Ockelford was so successful and has established solid foundations for him to continue to grow and develop as the talented little musician he is", said Jack's mother Julie.

While in London Jack underwent twenty hours tuition over four weeks with Professor Ockleford. Apart from study and practice Jack and his family had plenty of time to enjoy the historical sites around London and even found time to play with a famous musical savant, Derek Paravinci who is austitic, blind and non-verbal but also has an outstanding talent on the piano.

After tutoring Jack, Professor Ockelford reported "Jack has an unusually refined musical ear: he has ‘Absolute Pitch', which means that he can identify and reproduce notes with reference to any others. This gives him a great advantage when playing by ear. He assimilates new material rapidly, if somewhat idiosyncratically. He is intensely creative, and can improvise on tonal material that is provided in a range of popular and light classical styles. He can produce music afresh that conveys a range of emotions, using a great diversity of chordal, melodic and rhythmic combinations. He appears to have a clear aural ‘picture' in his head of the sounds and textures he wishes to create before notating them on the computer..... In short, he is an exceptional young musician, who deserves teaching input of the highest standard to enable him to fulfil his potential."

Mum Julie recently updated us on Jack's rising talent. Since returning from London, Jack has commenced tuition with a second music teacher, Bronwyn Blaicklock (Bmus Hon) to build on his technical skills and repertoire. He has continued to develop musically on a weekly basis, playing more creatively, maturely and constructively. Jack has performed in Ballarat, playing for Peter Costello's Book Launch here, Christmas concerts, the Rotary District conference and a Rotary dinner for Wendouree Branch. He has continued to compose and he will enter the Australians Children's Song Writing Competition later this year. Jack will also be recording this material. All of which is so exciting for him. He loves performing and he touches his audiences on such a level that is really hard to describe other than "moving".

For more information on how to nominate children for the Young Arts Acheiver Award next year, please contact: janetteconnolly@varietyvic.org.au
or phone 03 8698 3900