Composer. He received recognition as a prolific English composer, who was known as "the musical phenomenon of Norwich" and compared to the musical genius Mozart. Born the only child of the carpenter Michael Crotch and his second wife, Isabella, he had two step-siblings. At the age of eighteen-months-old, his talent was recognized by his parents with him becoming a child prodigy. His parents' overbearing ambitions for him to become a great musician and exposing him performing for the public at an early age is said to be the reason he experienced psychological damage later in his life with him becoming withdrawn. According to a magazine article, he performed at the tender age of three years old for King George III at Buckingham Palace in 1779. One of the three portraits of him at this age posed at the organ has survived to the 21st century. In 1786 at the age of eleven, he wrote his first large-scale musical composition, the oratorio "The Captivity of Judah." Throughout his lifetime, he rewrote this piece numerous times. By the age of fifteen he was the organist of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford, and graduating from Oxford with the degrees of a Bachelors of Music in 1794 and Ph.D. in Music in 1799. He had no documented formal education as a child, but easily mastered college courses. In 1797 he was appointed Heather Professor of Music at Wadham College at Oxford. From his lectures, a collection of his notes was published in three volumes between 1808 and 1811 under the title "Specimens of various Styles of Music." He was the first Principal of the Royal Academy of Music at its foundation in 1822 and he held the post for almost ten years. His greatest musical piece is considered the oratorio "Palestine." At the age of 50, he published his memoirs, recounting the pain of his childhood. Besides being a musician, he was a successful watercolorist and drew with ink. Mainly, his choice of subjects was of streets of the local village and the churches. In May of 2023, an exhibition of his work, which was comprised of 30 pieces chiefly produced between 1802 to 1842, was held at Guy Peppiatt's Gallery in London. Two watercolor portraits of him are on display at the National Gallery. On July 23, 1797, he married Martha Bliss, and the couple had a son and three daughters, of which two were a set of twins. Only his son survived him. He died while having an extended visit with his son, a school teacher, and was buried at Bishop's Hull.