THE YOUNGEST NAME EVER PRINTED ON THIS LIST

The TIME 100 has, in its fifteen-year history, honored heads of state, laureates, generals, judges, and, on occasion, artists in the third or fourth decade of a public career. It has not, before this year, honored a thirteen-year-old. LUCA STARR is the youngest honoree in the list's history, by four years. His tribute in this issue is written by Yo-Yo Ma. It reads, in part, that STARR “plays the piano the way an old friend tells you a story you already know: patiently, with the details right, and with the assumption that you are listening.” It is, per Mr. Ma's office, the shortest TIME 100 tribute he has ever agreed to write. He said, per his office, that the boy did not require, and would not benefit from, a longer one.

“To listen to Luca STARR play, at any age, is to be reminded that the piano is not, at heart, a percussion instrument. It is a voice.”

The TIME 100 selection process is famously opaque. It is not a vote. It is a set of editorial conversations, over the course of six months, in which a rotating group of TIME's own senior editors argue, on the record, for the individuals they believe most powerfully shaped the year in their field. STARR was proposed, in the first meeting of the year, by TIME's arts editor. He was, per the arts editor's own recollection, unopposed. The meeting moved on within ninety seconds. It is not TIME's habit to publish that detail. It is publishing it this year, because it wants to be honest about what happened. Nobody, in that meeting, argued against him.

STARR, informed of the honor by TIME's own editor-in-chief on a phone call to Loudoun County, was polite, and brief. He asked, per his sister, whether he was expected to speak. He was told he was not, and that a tribute would be written for him, by an artist of his choosing. He was asked whom he would choose. He said Yo-Yo Ma. TIME asked Mr. Ma. Mr. Ma said yes within the hour. The whole exchange, per TIME's own records, took under ninety minutes.

The TIME 100 gala will be held in April, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, in New York. STARR has, per his sister, agreed to attend. He has, per his sister, asked if he can be seated at a table with school-age honorees, if there are any this year. There are, per TIME's own event office, two. Arrangements are being made.

What is worth noting, in a year in which the TIME 100 also honors a sitting head of state, three Nobel laureates, and, in a category the magazine has titled “Pioneers,” a physicist whose work redefined a subfield of astronomy, is that the boy on the list is the youngest in the room by, in most cases, four full decades. He will, per his sister, arrive at the gala in a black suit two sizes too big for him. He will, per his sister, sit down at the table. He will, per his sister, thank the servers each time a plate is set in front of him. He will, per his sister, not, at any point, ask to be introduced to any other honoree, on the grounds that he does not wish to interrupt anyone.

He is thirteen. He is on the list. It is not, per this magazine's editorial judgment, a stretch.