Teen prodigy commits suicide

[ghost of miles]

Man, this is so sad--sounds like this kid had so much to offer:

Mom Tries to Rationalize Prodigy's Death

Sat Mar 19, 1:45 PM ET  U.S. National - AP

By SHARON COHEN, AP National Writer

He started reading as a toddler, played piano at age 3 and delivered a high school commencement speech in cap and gown when he was just 10 — his eyes barely visible over the podium.

Brandenn Bremmer was a child prodigy: He composed and recorded music, won piano competitions, breezed through college courses with an off-the-charts IQ and mastered everything from archery to photography, hurtling through life precociously. Then, last Tuesday, Brandenn was found dead in his Nebraska home from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head.

He was just 14. He left no note.

"Sometimes we wonder if maybe the physical, earthly world didn't offer him enough challenges and he felt it was time to move on and do something great," his mother, Patricia, said from the family home in Venango, Neb., a few miles from the Colorado border.

Brandenn showed no signs of depression, she said. He had just shown his family the art for the cover of his new CD that was about to be released.

He was, according to his family and teachers, an extraordinary blend of fun-loving child and serious adult. He loved Harry Potter (news - web sites) and Mozart. He watched cartoons and enjoyed video games but gave classical piano concerts for hundreds of people — without a hint of stage fright.

"He wasn't just talented, he was just a really nice young man," said David Wohl, an assistant professor at Colorado State University, where Brandenn studied music after high school. "He had an easy smile. He really was unpretentious."

Patricia Bremmer — who writes mysteries and has long raised dogs with her husband, Martin — said they both knew their son was special from the moment he was born. The brown-haired, blue-eyed boy was reading when he was 18 months old and entering classical piano competitions by age 4.

"He was born an adult," his mother said. "We just watched his body grow bigger."

He scored 178 on one IQ test — a test his mother said he was too bored to finish.

Brandenn was home schooled. By age 6, when many little boys are learning to read, he was ready to tackle high school. He enrolled in the Independent Study High School in Lincoln through the University of Nebraska, taking most of his courses by mail.

"He was such a breath of fresh air," recalls Lisa Bourlier, associate principal at the school. "It's unusual to find a student 6 years old willing to shake hands with adults and say, 'Hi, my name is Brandenn, this is what I want to do.'"

In a college preparatory program, Brandenn took his classes in clusters — all science at one time, all social studies at another — and "zipped through," said Bourlier.

His mother said his mind was so facile that if a topic interested him, he could complete a semester's work in 10 days. She sometimes worried she couldn't keep pace with her son's intellect, and the family hired tutors.

"He set the pace," she said. "We only did what he wanted. (We might say) 'Instead of taking three classes, why don't you take one?' We let him make his own choices from the time he was an infant. ... He always made good choices."

For his senior class photo, Brandenn temporarily darkened his hair, wore a red cape and round wire-rimmed glasses and posed with a suspended broom — the spitting image of Harry Potter.

At age 10, he became the youngest graduate of his high school and he delivered a commencement speech, saying he was so unusual he practically "qualified for the endangered species list."

 

"He carried himself very well," recalled Bourlier. "He did just a very nice job for being 10. During the ceremony, he gave this excellent little speech. He was just so composed. ... Then afterward, he was running around with his nieces and nephews just a few years younger than him."

Brandenn was taking biology at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, Neb., and had recently decided he wanted to become an anesthesiologist. He also studied for years at Colorado State, polishing piano skills that had won him state competitions and a table-full of trophies.

Brandenn turned away from his classical roots and started writing his own spiritual, New Age-style music, passing on a demo of one piano piece to the musician Yanni at a Nebraska concert. He released a CD called "Elements" and gave concerts in Colorado and Nebraska. He was booked for a concert in Kansas next year.

His music will live on — the Bremmers plan to release his second CD for fans who range from nuns to cancer patients to the owners of a New York restaurant where diners can listen to the soothing melodies of Brandenn Bremmer.

His family, meanwhile, wonders why he is gone.

"We're trying to rationalize now," his mother said. "He had this excessive need to help people and teach people. ... He was so connected with the spiritual world. We felt he could hear people's needs and desires and their cries. We just felt like something touched him that day and he knew he had to leave" to save others.

And so, she said, Brandenn's kidneys were donated to two people, his liver went to a 22-month-old and his heart to an 11-year-old boy.

Patricia Bremmer said in the days since her son's death, she and others have felt his presence. Her husband, she said, was comforted to find a message under his computer mouse pad their son had written six years ago: "I love you dad. No matter what happens, I'll always love you."

She wished that she, too, could have that sort of solace. She started rummaging through drawers to stay busy and came across five handmade cards from Brandenn with the same loving message.

Finding them, she said, "just made it so much easier."

[BruceH]

I just read this myself. This is sad, but kind of scary. With so much going for him, you can't help wondering why the kid killed himself. We'll probably never know.

[Jazz Kat]

Can be anything inside of him. Pressure, personal conflicts that he couldn't handle...

[chandra]

That is really very sad. The word 'prodigy' does not seem to do full justice. He seemed to have been one of a kind...

[Dr. Rat]

Very sad. These things are always hard to figure out. Teens making this decision aren't making it on a basis that can be explained.

Doesn't really reflect on their prospects or on the state of the world, I don't think.

--eric

[connoisseur series500]

Was his home life that rosy? Must have been some issues. Makes you wonder.

[Tjazz]

New age music at 14? (no disrespect for his family, intented)

[Jim Alfredson]

Maybe he didn't get to be a kid.

[Randy Twizzle]

i'll bet there's some dark dark shit in there if you even scratch the surface.

"Water" became the first piano piece composed by Brandenn. The response from his demo was remarkable. At a Yanni concert in Omaha, Nebraska he was able to pass an autographed copy of his demo "Water" to Yanni. Yanni in turn gave Brandenn one of his latest CD’s, autographed with a wish of luck and encouragement for his accomplishment."

http://www.windcallenterprises.com/music.htm

[Jazz Kat]

Sounded like books were more a part of his life than music.

[GregN]

A friend of mine who's finishing his PhD at UVa, and who is a gifted resources teacher, told me that 'gifted' is most often a curse. With high IQ comes a plethora of emotional issues. It isn't automatic that one will suffer, it just seems more likely. Moreover, most of the pressure these kids face is from within. Remember they are processing information at a rate far beyond the bulk of their peers and teachers. Many become lonely to the point of pathology. It is an incredibly sad and ironic story. It speaks to the difficulty of life, regardless of what one's supposed attributes might be.

Just my two-cents.

[Jim Alfredson]

A friend of mine who's finishing his PhD at UVa, and who is a gifted resources teacher, told me that 'gifted' is most often a curse. With high IQ comes a plethora of emotional issues. It isn't automatic that one will suffer, it just seems more likely. Moreover, most of the pressure these kids face is from within. Remember they are processing information at a rate far beyond the bulk of their peers and teachers. Many become lonely to the point of pathology. It is an incredibly sad and ironic story. It speaks to the difficulty of life, regardless of what one's supposed attributes might be.

Just my two-cents.

This is more in line with what I meant by my statement, "Maybe he didn't get to be a kid." When you're operating on such a high level, a normal childhood probably goes out the window.

[JSngry]

If you know you can do anything you want to do, what do you have to look forward to?

Plenty, but did anybody make this kid realize that? Or did everybody just turn him loose to go where he already knew he could go?

Failure is sometimes a beautiful thing.

[chandra]

After reading the article again, I am now questioning if there are other issues surrounding the story that the journalist missed out or left out. There are still a few raw edges to the story...

Not that we are entitled to know but I am really curious...

- Was the child autistic? Doesn't seem to the fit the typical profile but there are hundreds of variations of autism. My friend's kid is diagnosed as autisitic. He is also a prodigy, way ahead of everyone in his class but there are enough issues with him for his parents to seek medical attention.

- How did he get hold of a gun?

- There should be a follow up story, with a broad coverage of gifted children. What happens to them later on in life, do they grow to be researchers or CEOs or what? Is there a higher than normal suicide risk with such kids? That will help us get the background context.

Edited March 20, 2005 by chandra

[Guest che]

Yes this is very sad, but increasingly common in some countries.

I see young people. not quite daily, but frequently who harm themselves in one way or the other. Some actually kill themselves, most feel alienated, or are being bullied or physically or sexually abuse etc etc.

The reasons are complicated, what seems clear is that we need to find ways of talking and communicating with young people.

Che.

[Tjazz]

Talking about TOUGH parents.

The only guy I knew that made it as a professional musican (violin) had TOUGH parents. Very strict. All the kids had to practice and they had NO TV in the house. I never thought of this guy as a prodigy, but he said that luckily there was one teacher that inspired him. Alot of his teachers depressed him.

He said that he won't be that way on his child. (TOUGH)

[Big Wheel]

...and they had NO TV in the house.

Jeez, you make having no TV sound akin to daily beatings or something. My cousins decided to toss their TV when their second child was born (though they were of course allowed to watch at friends' houses) and you know what? Those four girls are some of the most well-adjusted people I know. Clearly, you have to give a kid some kind of outlet to blow off steam, and the average pushy parent doesn't do that. But I don't see anything wrong with simply denying them TV as long as it isn't part of some larger pattern of austerity.

[Tjazz]

I think you added the beating comment

[Big Wheel]

After reading the article again, I am now questioning if there are other issues surrounding the story that the journalist missed out or left out. There are still a few raw edges to the story...

Not that we are entitled to know but I am really curious...

- Was the child autistic? Doesn't seem to the fit the typical profile but there are hundreds of variations of autism. My friend's kid is diagnosed as autisitic. He is also a prodigy, way ahead of everyone in his class but there are enough issues with him for his parents to seek medical attention.

- How did he get hold of a gun?

- There should be a follow up story, with a broad coverage of gifted children. What happens to them later on in life, do they grow to be researchers or CEOs or what? Is there a higher than normal suicide risk with such kids? That will help us get the background context.

The word "gifted" has sort of gotten stretched over the last couple of decades. In my elementary and middle schools, probably 30-40% of kids were in some kind of "gifted" classes (possibly because average IQ has been steadily increasing in this country, making it easier for more kids to pass the threshhold recommended for these classes). Clearly this kid was learning at a level way, way, way beyond what we think of as "gifted" these days.

[Big Wheel]

I think you added the beating comment

Uh, yeah, but I did so because your post seemed to imply that not having TV was an awful thing for a parent to do to a kid.

[Jazzmoose]

I think you added the beating comment

Uh, yeah, but I did so because your post seemed to imply that not having TV was an awful thing for a parent to do to a kid.

Yeah, NO TV, all in caps implied that this was some terrible thing. It isn't, believe me.

[Tjazz]

Course, Strict parents usually implies a swat to the behind, if the child acts up.

[Big Wheel]

There is a story about this kid in this week's New Yorker. I've only skimmed it so far...it doesn't seem to reflect very well on his parents. Not that the death of a child wouldn't majorly screw anyone up, but...to me it goes well beyond that. They viewed him almost like some kind of supernatural entity. There's a part of the story that discusses how he had a love interest, a girl at a summer program for exceptionally gifted kids, and they basically dismiss the imprtance of it by saying "all the girls there wanted to marry him, and none of them knew about the others, and besides none of them were good enough for Brandenn anyway." Sad.

[ghost of miles]

I just read the article. The parents practically deify the kid--they even think now that he committed suicide so that his organs could be harvested. Really sad... and the counselor seems a bit gone as well.

[clifford_thornton]

After reading the article again, I am now questioning if there are other issues surrounding the story that the journalist missed out or left out. There are still a few raw edges to the story...

Not that we are entitled to know but I am really curious...

- Was the child autistic? Doesn't seem to the fit the typical profile but there are hundreds of variations of autism. My friend's kid is diagnosed as autisitic. He is also a prodigy, way ahead of everyone in his class but there are enough issues with him for his parents to seek medical attention.

- How did he get hold of a gun?

- There should be a follow up story, with a broad coverage of gifted children. What happens to them later on in life, do they grow to be researchers or CEOs or what? Is there a higher than normal suicide risk with such kids? That will help us get the background context.

All of those are valid points, especially the first - even mild autism can really cause a lot of alienated and confused feelings, despite what seems like social well-adjustment. I have some experience with this and let me tell you, it is not pretty for those who have to deal with it.