To Rise Above the Beasts - Derek

The fourth post in the To Rise Above the Beasts series introduces Derek Paravicini, a musical savant.

Derek

Derek Paravicini was born too early. Because of this, oxygen treatment was administered which left him blind and autistic with learning disabilities. He seemed destined for a hard life outside society, byt Derek is world famous. His disadvantages have made him a musical genius.

Being unable to see and originally having difficulties understanding speech, his skills tended towards the musical side. He has absolute pitch and is able to repeat any piece of music he has ever heard. In addition, he is able to merge styles and songs in quite an extraordinary manner. Starting off, let's watch him play Flight on the Bumblebee on two pianos.

To Rise Above the Beasts - Josh

Josh (Robert Thompson) is quite good at the Arnold and Steven Segal impressions. His Robert DeNiro is also quite good, especially here, but his Morgan Freeman is the sign of proper talent. Freeman's pleasant narrator voice is really something worth having.

Enjoy!

For more Morgan from this nice fellow, click here.

To Rise above the Beasts - Shaun Ellis

The first post in this series introduced Laura, a musically agile soprano performing the impossible. Now, I am proud to present a rather differently talented gentleman;

Shaun Ellis

 aka "Wolfman"

Shaun Ellis is an Norfolk ex-marine who has taken a rather unusual approach to behavioural biology. Living with different packs of wolves and adopting their ways of communication and beaviour he has gathered fascinating information on these animals. He has explored the human-like social hierarchy in packs, most notably when he lost his position as alpha male during his 2005 stay with a pack in Combe Martin Wildlife Park. Through this unorthodox way of studying wild animals, he has shown how scent, sound and posture are central to their communication and that this can be used by humans to understand and control the behaviour of the wolf population.

Although it can be argued that Ellis' strength does not stem from any talent but rather from perseverance, his ability to communicate with animals which, as so many talents, has been cultivated over several years sets him apart. Through his talent for communication and understanding of the wild, Shaun Ellis, by stooping to the beasts rise above beasts and man alike.

The next four parts of this documentary as well as the one above can be found here.

Source

To Rise above the Beasts - Laura

Welcome to the To Rise above the Beasts series!

This is a series of posts where I, with as little interference as possible, will present what I consider to constitute talent. As talent is a many splendoured thing, the only requisite I choose to set is that the talent needs to be out of the ordinary, that is; bafflingly unexpected.

So, without further ado, on to the first talent, Laura.

Laura

In Luc Besson's The Fifth Element from 1997 the character Diva Plavalaguna (with the voice of Albanian soprano Inva Mula) sings Eric Serra's The Diva Dance. The first part consists of a segment from Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor called Il dolce suono (click here for text). The second part is more trance-like, and I for one thought the performance of this unfeasible without the aid of computer technology...

I was gloriously mistaken.

To listen to more of Laura's singing, visit her youtube channel.