The 'A' Team

It seems that a whole ensemble of genius souls has descended to Earth recently in this century.

I introduce to you Anastasia Tyurina, Russian balalaika player, here performing "Valenki" at the age of 7.



The funny thing is that they are all girls and their names all begin with the letter A.

Amira Willighagen – Dutch soprano singer (born 2004)
Alma Deutscher – English classical composer (born 2005)
Angelina Jordan – Norwegian jazz singer (born 2006)
Anastasia Tyurina – Russian balalaika player (born 2011 ?)

I can find very little English language information about Anastasia. My guess from what I have read is she is currently 9 years old, and highly celebrated in Russia as a prodigy.

Here she is again, playing a fragment from “Caprice No. 24”, accompanied by the National Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Kremlin Palace in December 2019.



Who could ever get enough of this beauty? Here she competes in Season 5 of the all-Russian competition of young talents called "Blue Bird."



And this, from the same competition, is out of this world.