Product Description

These intensely personal and perceptive essays explore the author's life as a pianist - practicing, performing, teaching, and writing - but they could be the thoughts and reflections of any artist. They recount the challenges, rewards, and joys of her experiences in her chosen profession.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1458676 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03-01
• Released on: 2003-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 297 pages

From Booklist
Montparker, senior editor of Clavier magazine, pianist, teacher, writer, and painter, relates her experiences with music and people in a thoroughly engaging way. She begins with comments on her love of nature, how she works, and how music is a comfort, and with letters and mementos. She continues with her experiences giving recitals and comments on audiences, preparation, and her love for chamber music. Turning next to her love for teaching and to teaching's rewards, she also describes her techniques for drawing the best from her students. Finally, she talks about her many interviews with famous pianists and the difficulties she had with those interviews. Returning home in the last essay, she longs for "the music of thrushes, Bach, Carolina wrens, Beethoven." Her essays will be enjoyed not by musicians only, but by all music lovers who want to be swept away by an honest and warm description of an artist's life and its trials and rewards. Alan Hirsch

Customer Reviews

Insight on Artistry
Carol Montparker writes with insight, warmth, and sensitivity. She has great feeling for the difficulties and rewards of the pianist's vocation. She expresses appreciation to the famous pianists she has interviewed for Clavier Magazine, and yet she speaks of her students with respect, also. Her insights into the challenges facing a pianist and her reverence for the art form make this book eminently worth reading.

SHE SPEAKS TO ME
THIS BOOK WAS GIVEN TO ME BY MY SISTER WHO HAD READ IT AND KNEW I WOULD LOVE IT! AND I DID. MONTPARKER WRITES WITH A WONDERUFL CLARITY AND "RIGHT-ON-NESS." WHETHER ONE IS AN ARTIST OF ANY SORT, VISUAL, MUSICAL OR ARCHITECTURAL OR "MERELY" A LOVER OF THE ARTS, CAROL MONTPARKER KNOWS HOW TO GET HER MESSAGE ACROSS. ONE REALIZES THE WORK, THE INSIGHT AND THE DEVOTION THIS MUSICIAN BRINGS TO HER TALENT AND HOW SHE IS OPEN TO MUSIC OF ALL KINDS. SHE NEVER DENIGRATES MUSICIANS, AND SHE LISTENS, NOT ONLY WITH A KEEN EAR,BUT WITH COMPASSION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE THE PERFORMER AND THE MUSIC. WHETHER YOU ARE A PLAYER OR LISTENER OF MUSIC, CAROL MONTPARKER SPEAKS TO YOU AND SEEMS TO BE IN TOUCH. SHE IS HONEST AND STRAIGHT FORWARD WITHOUT BEING OVERLY SENTIMENTAL. I LOVE THIS BOOK! READ IT!