Not only is he enthusiastic, he has exceptional rhythm!

 Did I see a gesture of syncopation?  OMG he is not just responding to the music he is anticipating!   Bravo Maestro!

pretty good for a right-handed conductor.   ;-)

Darn itchy nose...keeps a guy from really getting into it!

Brilliant!

How amazing to see this little guy know the music.

I feel like him when I'm sitting in the seat at a concert by the "Space Coast Symphony."

Only this kid is a little more right on then I am.

EAM

This little guy is amazing! I hope this might influence his career choices in the future.

It looks to me as if he knows the piece and he's actually anticipating the changes in tempi and mood rather than just reacting to them.  Could Beethoven be reincarnated?

Marvelous! His parents must be ecstatic. Ed Clifford

My goodness! How old did you say he is? My father in law died 10 years ago last May. Although this child has a different conducting style, to warrant the comparison is commendable.  Makes you want to believe in reincarnation or inherant abilities (which society tends to unravel, no pun intended). Parents please allow your son to develop his gift in his own way because he is already a pleasure to watch - he could probably teach some maestros a thing or two about channeling music as if his whole body is an electrical conductor, and the non-productive act of taking yourself too seriously. The manner in which your son communicates musical composition with his body is pure poetry, even when he is distracted!

He knows the music better than many conductors!!! the next Dudamel

I find Beethoven makes my nose itch, too.

 

Fantastic !

I believe a major symphony orchestra could easily follow his direction (except for the finish) and audiences would love his style. 

 

 I also think that this video would serve an excellent training tool for conducting students--it teaches music expression using the whole body (including conducting with your feet), unbridled enthusiasm, and how to deal with emergencies without dropping a beat (or a baton).

 

This video gets an A+ in my book. Bravo, Jonathan!

I'd love to meet this little genius.  I'm a conductor and am enthralled by what I just saw. Any leads?  xoxoxo Anoush

This film really put a smile on my face. I think that with the amount of publicity this little guy is going to get, he should get Gap to sponsor his studies at the Juillard!!

Diane Langleben, London, UK

I'm crying tears of joy!  Isn't this what we all feel when we conduct a work like this but are afraid to release? 

BRAVO, you are amazing. You have talent and rhythm, I enjoyed your performance alot. 

This is one of the funniest things I 've seen in a long time. He is better than most conductors that I have seen as a professional musician for over 3 decades. You go Jonathan! You have great talent!! Janet a professional cellist

Proof positive for reincarnation! It is not only Buddhist monks who reincarnate, but everyone. Every child is a reincarnation of somone. Like the 3 year old break-dancer, or the 6 six year with the amazing operatic voice, or the 18 month old who looks like is Isadora Duncan, here is another wonderful example of this fact of life. YouTube is wonderful. It opens our eyes, literally!

A nod also needs to be given to this very impressive boy's parents.  They are clearly raising him with a love and a knowledge of music, and for that they shoule be commended.  If only there were more like them!

This child has obviously heard this piece many, many times and has practiced his conducting to it, as well.  Bravo, young maestro!  You obviously are full of musical talent--and quite precocious, at that!  Perhaps someday, you shall conduct a famous symphony orchestra?

This is truly amazing ! What a JOY to watch! I still have a smile on my face from watching this joyful video. Thanks for sharing

This kid of yours is awesome! I sure hope that you have him started on violin or piano or at least soon! He has so much enthusiasm and talent already. Capture it before he gets hold of a football!!!!! Keep exposing him to classical music and conductors!

Poetry in Motion!!! Absolutely delightful.  No doubt his love of music will lead him where he needs to go.

I laughed and at the end I cried. Jonathan, I believe, is an example of pure feeling, and as someone commented earlier, a channel. When we're in our feelings (unconscious mind) as opposed to too much in our conscious mind, our true self shines. He's completely present and in the moment, and he's having a lot of fun. What a great role model! And kudos to his parents for giving him a supportive and nurturing environment to grow up in and live his life purpose, whatever that may be. He's already inspiring so many people. All the best, Jonathan! And welcome back!

 

amazing internal sense of rhythm and focus to last that long doing the same activity.  he has obviously "learned" this movement as commentary regarding " liking this part coming up" or " that's my favorite part" were accompanied verbally whilst he still was conducting.....or dancing ....or whatever he was doing!!!  its absolutely marvelous.  the enthusiasm and the whole body reacting to the beat and the interpretation of the music itself.  well done maestro!

My goodness; he reminds me of myself when I "conduct" the record player...........his sense of tempo and anticipation are outstanding!

He feels the music in each and  every fiber of his being!!!  Love to see that and hope it stays with him!

A true inspiration to all young people!

Can this talented young man conduct the last several minutes of the 4th Beethoven's 9th?

I'd love to see it

He's ready for the podium NOW!  Amazing! I'd love to play under his direction; we'd all have a BLAST!  It's great that he and the parents can laugh....great job!  Obviously, there's musical talent in the family, and this little one really has it!!  Parents are doing a great job inculcating a love for music..

Some careers are chosen at an early age. I'd say it's time to give this kid his scholarship to an advanced music academy.  { That, or clown school. :) :)  think Red Skelton skit, at an early age }

Shaquille O'Neal must have watched this little guy before conducting the Boston Pops.

We were just at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for the performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22, K 482, conducted by Nicolas McGegan.  This child is reminiscent of Maestro McGegan's style of conducting - full of joy, elation, dance, frivolity and sheer genius!  Parents - I hope you continue to encourage your child's God-given talent as a conductor.  Continue to expose him to classical music.  Bring him to Los Angeles to meet Dudamel, who I'm sure would mentor him! 

Thank you, Jonathan! (And thank you, Allen, for sharing this.) I hope I get to see you conduct a live orchestra soon.

This talented and obviously gifted young man brought me to tears. Best baton work I have seen in years. Please continue to nurture and encourage him!

Jonathan is amazing! I love it how he conducts with both arms and legs and his whole body! Please let him conduct an orchestra and make another video with him and the orchestra! I hope you let us know when you do this with an email from new@choralnet.org! Thanks!

C'mon folks - let's not get carried away.  It's a fun thing and that's all.  He's a cute kid that's seen a real conductor on TV and has been stimulated by a stirring orchestral piece and started waving his arms in time.  So his folks got a baton and encouraged him to imitate a real world conductor; then played the record over and over so he got used to anticipating the changes in loudness and tempo.  And he put his whole body into it sometimes, as three year olds do.  Will he someday be a great conductor?  Sometime when you're at a symphony concert, steal a peek at the conductor's music and note the 15 or 20 lines of notes for each instrument that the conductor must glance at 40 to 50 times per minute, in order to LEAD those instrument players to do what he wants.  It takes absolute genius . . .

 

Love the tent. Is that his green room?

I agree with responder, Barbara Cohen, that he should meet Maestro Dudamel, the on-fire conductor from Venezuela, of the Los Angeles Symphony. As a former choral conductor and Founder the St. Louis Children's Choirs, I can tell that he has had some excellent training already.  He knows the music, at least by sound, and that alone is impressive. His use of the baton is quite good; his  wrist is flexible and arm movements fluid, following the mood of the music so well, and he conducts on the upbeat which is only done by trained conductors -- many kids would have trouble with that.  Everyone agrees that his enthusiasm is marvelous, a mood to be reflected and enjoyed by all in music and in life.  And he inspires hope for the future of youth and music!

Great job!! At 3:00, he turned to his left to cue the 1st violins. 

He even has his own podium!  Jonathon's parents must be musicians, ya think?

I am a musician, have played violin in orchestras professionally, and am an organist/choir director.

This child has an amazing gift! He is absolutely anticipating what is coming and i.e. he KNOWS this work thoroughly. I loved this!

Fantastic video !

I give him 10 years before he's standing in front of the New York Philharmonic!

I just had to respond. Brovo, Magnificent. Best video I have watched ever!. I watched it four times and cried for all four. What a little cutie.

Great job and yes parents should be extremely PROUD

It is obvious that this marvellous child has been immersed in music (and certainly in this particular piece) since probably before birth.  Congratulations to his parents, who have instilled in him not just the love of music, but the freedom to create such magic!  He will be a force to be reckoned with down the line.  I'd love to see his debut as the conductor of a major symphony orchestra!

I'm presuming his name IS Jonathan Simon, and that the author at the top is his father!

Amazing.  He obviously is familiar with the score.  He doesn't just follow the music - he is in front of it.  A little work on the nose-wipes and he's ready for Carnegie Hall.

As a music teacher for the past 30 years, I wish all my students were as enthusiastic and talented as Johathan.  Kudos to Mom & Dad for exposing him to great music.  He obviously knows the piece well and loves it!  I loved when he said, "Oh, this is my favorite part!"  hahaha Great job Jonathan!  Keep the videos coming!

Now there's a conductor I could really perform with!  That kind of enthusiasm brings out the best in all of us.  Not all child prodigies sing or play and instrument. It great to see one with a natural feeling for the music.  Bravissimo!!

I rarely listen to classical more or less go to a concert but I would definitely get into it if the conductors were like Jonathan.  Bravo!

Do a YouTube search for "3-year-old Jonathan," and there are also a couple of clips of him playing violin. Remarkable clarity, rhythm, and musicality with a remarkably low degree of excruciating-Suzuki-squeakiness for a kid this age. I suspect Jonathan may be the real deal.

 

peace,

Jennifer

(who has absolutely no issues with the Suzuki method; it's just that inevitable period of Young String Player Screech which I suspect every student has to go through to some extent--and which as a cellist I never quite grew out of, which is why I finally gave it up after college and concentrated on choral music!)

The nuances of his musical expressions truly capture the music!  Phenomenal..we should all take lessons!  I wonder how many times he had heard the piece before this video was captured.  Bravo!!

Can he get the job as a conductor for the symphony?  I would think there will be more people buying tickets to the symphony.

brilliant! send this to GAP -- they need this for their next TV commercial!

I'm amazed!  It looks as though he's actually communicating with an unseen orchestra.  His focal point shifts and changes as though he were pointing to and engaging actual individuals.  Ah the imagination of a child! 

Oh, my goodness, he is the music !

 

Bravo! Encore! Encore!

Puck 15 januari

Het kan niet anders, hier wordt je blij en gelukkig van!
 

Bravo, Maestro! You are absolutely delightful!

Hey, Josh, you always conduct with your right hand.  Anyway.... GREAT little conductor here.  I can just see him really leading a major symphony orchestra in a few years.  

Thank you so much for posting this! But my first thought was, "Wow, this is one observant kid. Nobody just gets this good, all by himself, at such a young age. He was watching a top-notch model." I hesitate to say this, but in different fields I and others I've known were doing as much as young or younger and for the same reasons: talented nature plus talented nurture. So indeed, let's give little Jonathan's parents a big round of applause as well. Without them Jonathan wouldn't be what he is right now.

 

Jonathan is very likely an ESP child and very likely will be an ESFP adult - explaining many things, including his powers of sensory observation, his deep feeling and sense of rhythm, his enthusiasm and his joie de vivre. And the thought of what such a person will do if he turns to classical conducting, or anything else in music, just boggles my mind. But this ENFP Celtic harper and songwriter hews to cellist Pablo Casals' lines below. There are sixteen overall patterns that people fall into with regard to their thought processes, so common threads of talent and outlook will reappear repeatedly as if growing from the same psychic soil; but every person is unique just as every individual tree within every species of tree is unique. Jonathan isn't some great person of the past reincarnated. He is Jonathan, a potentially great person of the future. Let's appreciate him as such. I know I do.

 

"Do you know what you are?
You are a marvel. You are unique.
In all the years that have passed,
there has never been another child like you."

                      -- Pablo Casals
 

This little boy is a young genius!  His face and his body movements show every dynamic in the music.  How does a child this age have that kind of sophistocation?!!!  If he continues to love music this way, he has a career ahead of him!

Oh Jonathan! 　So Marvelous Power ！！　Not to express Music, but he himself is Music

itself indeed!     I'm very much pleased to hear Muse's Parent 's smiling a little in this film.   I would like to toast  for Jonathan's Parent who can enjoy his smiling everyday..  You are living  with The God of Music... Thanks a lot  again & again!!       

I do the same thing when I play the Karajan recording too (which this is).  Please enroll this future artist in piano and theory as soon as you can!  Most importantly, I think all serious amateurs and professionals would agree that we all "drop the baton" (very often at the same point in a piece as they young maestro did here), during every performance of a piece..  Please encourage him by revealing to him that this is not a bad thing, but a lesson in concentration and control.  It will happen again and all he needs to do is keep going.  I've seen Maestro Menuhin drop his bow while playing a concerto, Kaz Kord literally through his baton all the way to the back left into the timpani once, Georg Solti stabbed his own left hand with the baton.. and Thomas Beecham once fell backwards off the stage.  Your son is in superb company.. and I do hope he seriously considers giving us his own Beethoven 5th, with the Berlin Phil of his time, someday soon.

He really has musicality! Not many children of his age could do what he just did!

The possibilities of mankind are defined by events such as this.  Jonathan's performance reveals to all of us what we couldn't even start imagining - that a 3 year old child could perform such as we've all now seen. For Jonathan, this possibly is a life changing event; I for one, sure hope it is, that some music school such as Juliards or any of the many fine music departments in our universities, will see the gift in this child and will not allow it to go waste. That would be tragic, and such a loss for all.

 

Great going Jonathan and parents. Keep up the good work. Thank you so much for such a delightful gift.

What an amazing little boy.  His joy is contagious and his little body feels every note of the music!!!  As another poster mentioned, he IS the next Dudamel!!!  Every fiber of this child feels the music and he interprets it beautifully with his little baton.  His cues were spot on and I even approve of his finale.  He was spent--physically and emotionally--by the end of the piece.  Bravo, Maestrino, bravo!!!!! 

This is absolutely the end. Never seen such greatness. He does what I always wanted to do. Don't make him crazy but try to keep it up, as school is important. Hope to hear his name once and that he will be here in the Netherlands in front of the Amsterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. 

This is smiling at the top. I have seen it now 4 times in a row.

You can be sure, I just receive it from the USA but it goes now al over Europe.

This is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen! This child is AMAZING!!!!  Brilliant.

Jonathan has ALL of the talent and spirit to cause the officials at Carnegie Hall to invite him at an early age!!

Hats off to MOM and DAD for getting his dream started, and your continued support will reap GREAT rewards for HIM, and you in the future.

Thank you for being such excellent PARENTS!!!

Tinman

WOW!! Parents, if you are not already saving for him to attend a top level Conservatory of Music, you are seriously missing the boat.  This kid is extraordinary.  Please send this video to ICM, and all the major music agents.  They might be willing to back him RIGHT NOW.  I have played under many conductors, and though his style is still a bit "rough" and amusing, he has amazing promise.  Please plan for him to pursue what is clearly his passion!!

Hi Allen and Jonathan - Jonathan....your enthusiasm is relentless; youv'e shown us that music is not just to be heard but to be seen and expereinced through people like you.Your passion and laughter adds visuals to a piece of music that sometimes fails to reach people if only beacuse they dont know how to listen; your sheer enjoyment  and liveliness is just electric, make sure that dad of your keeps reminding you! Good to hear from to Deborah (below) whose father in law, we met sveral times could well become your greatest inspiration...let me know when you take on your first opera.../peter

I am the musical director of my church and I would give him the job as conductor of the band any day but he would have to leave his nose alone. I can't believe the musical talent he has and I hope he keeps it up for the rest of his life.

This is simply extraordinary and pure joy to watch, and I agree with all those encouraging this precious child's parents to develop his amazing musical gift! 

A comment, also, to Ms. Giulini:  I had the incredible honor of singing under your father-in-law's baton many years ago in London, and it was a peak life experience, which I've never forgotten!  He was truly one of the world's exceptional talents, and (I imagine) a remarkable in-law to have!

This is my favourite video of 2010. Whenever I feel my choral conducting is getting a bit dull, I know I can turn to this wonderful, talented little boy for inspiration. 

He reminded me of when I saw James DuPriest when he was conducting the Oregon Synphony.......He is an amazing gifted child, I hope he continues with his passion for classical music. He is going to take this world by storm.

To all conducting teachers, Here is your ultimate challenge:

Teach this guy, guide him and mentor him WITHOUT SPOILING ANYTHING WE JUST SAW !!! Or else.......

Be warned !

Signed:

Jonathans humble enchanted audience. 

Yes, he is enthusiastic, he likes music indeed, but he is just kidding like a child should be.

Pure unadulterated joy. A God given gift to be shared with all.

Give me this chap over Simon Rattle anyday!!

This young man would actually be easier to follow than some of the community symphony conductors that I have had.  It will be fun to see him, as conductor of a major symphony orchestra, on some talk show in 30 years when they play this video to show "where it all began!"

 

Jean-Jacques Rousseau - perfectibilite

 

I have a three year old granddaughter, Sydney and see

in her and contemporaries a great world harmony coming

Every child has so much music and creativity inside them. I is always a thrill when we allow them to share it. Blessings to the parents who made this video and shared it with us all!

Frank DeMiero

Make room, Gustavo!

This brings back fond memories of my oldest son, now 21.  He used to dance and gesture to music - no baton though.  He is currently finishing college as a vocal performance major and plans to sing opera.  Nice to see another young guy enjoying music so much!