Prodigy of just 11 conductor of Nottingham Royal Concert Hall

What he may have lacked in stature he made up for in sheer talent, composure and confidence.

This is 11-year-old Matthew Smith leading a 75-strong orchestra through a faultless rendition of the overture to Johann Strauss II’s Die Fledermaus – making him the youngest conductor ever to take to a professional stage in Britain, the Daily Mail reports.

The primary school pupil conducted the nine-minute piece entirely from memory, leaving a 1,300-strong audience at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham in raptures last night.

The schoolboy’s talent was unlocked four years ago when he saw two violinists performing at the Pentecostal church he attends with his mother and told her that he wanted to be “just like them”.

Mrs Riley, 40, a catering assistant at Nottingham High School, approached the £4,227-a-term school’s senior string teacher Derek Williams – who set Matthew up with a ‘dreadful old violin’ he found in a cupboard.

Matthew instinctively placed his fingers in the correct place on the instrument and virtually performed a scale in his first lesson.

Mr Williams said that Matthew had ‘music coming out of his pores’.

The schoolboy lives in a terrace home with his mother and brother Daniel, 16, on the outskirts of Nottingham.

Mrs Riley, who is divorced from Matthew’s father Cordova Smith and has since remarried, said that she had no idea where Matthew gets his musical ability from, although his father does play the saxophone.

She added: “I’m so proud of what Matthew has done.”

At last night’s concert, Mr Williams told the audience he planned to write to Sir Simon Rattle to highlight Matthew’s talent when the conductor becomes musical director of the London Symphony Orchestra later this year.

Mr Williams, who retired last Easter but has continued to teach Matthew for a nominal fee, said the boy had “an inherent natural ability the like of which I have not seen for 30 years”.

Matthew’s talent suggests he could be destined for a long career as a conductor. Daniel

Barenboim, the Argentine-Israeli pianist and conductor was aged 12 when he first conducted an orchestra, while Sir Simon was 13.