Crotch’s mu­sic­al gift showed it­self ear­ly; at age two, he was play­ing the or­gan which his fa­ther built. With­in a year, he was giv­ing pub­lic re­cit­als in Lon­don, and aca­dem­ics wrote pa­pers about the young pro­di­gy. He was play­ing violin and pi­a­no by age 7, and by 11 was as­sist­ant or­gan­ist to John Ran­dall at King’s Coll­ege, Cam­bridge. He com­posed an ora­tor­io by 14, and at 15 was the or­gan­ist at Christ Church, Ox­ford; he re­ceived his doc­tor­al de­gree at age 24. In 1822, he helped found the Royal Acad­e­my of Mu­sic. He had a dis­ting­uished ca­reer com­pos­ing, teach­ing, and lec­tur­ing.

Sources

Music

1. St. Michael