Download or read book Three Pianos written by Andrew McMahon and published by Chronicle Books. This book was released on 2021-10-26 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From beloved indie musician Andrew McMahon comes a searingly honest and beautifully written memoir about the challenges and triumphs of his life and career, as seen through the lens of his personal connection to three pianos. Andrew McMahon grew up in sunny Southern California as a child prodigy, learning to play piano and write songs at a very early age, stunning schoolmates and teachers alike with his gift for performing and his unique ability to emotionally connect with audiences. McMahon would go on to become the lead singer and songwriter for Something Corporate and Jack's Mannequin, and to release his debut solo album, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, in 2014. But behind this seemingly optimistic and quintessentially American story of big dreams come true lies a backdrop of overwhelming challenges that McMahon has faced—from a childhood defined by his father's struggle with addiction to his very public battle with leukemia in 2005 at the age of twenty-three, as chronicled in the intensely personal documentary Dear Jack. Overcoming those odds, McMahon has found solace and hope in the things that matter most, including family, the healing power of music and the one instrument he's always turned to: his piano. Three Pianos takes readers on a beautifully rendered and bitter-sweet American journey, one filled with inspiration, heartbreak, and an unwavering commitment to shedding our past in order to create a better future.
Download or read book Piano Girl written by Robin Meloy Goldsby and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 2006-05 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This entertaining memoir provides a glimpse into the comedies, tragedies, and mundane miracles witnessed from the business perspective of a world-traveling lounge musician.
Download or read book The Pianist written by Wladyslaw Szpilman and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2000-09-02 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The memoir that inspired Roman Polanski's Oscar-winning film, which won the Cannes Film Festival's most prestigious prize—the Palme d'Or. Named one of the Best Books of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times On September 23, 1939, Wladyslaw Szpilman played Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp minor live on the radio as shells exploded outside—so loudly that he couldn't hear his piano. It was the last live music broadcast from Warsaw: That day, a German bomb hit the station, and Polish Radio went off the air. Though he lost his entire family, Szpilman survived in hiding. In the end, his life was saved by a German officer who heard him play the same Chopin Nocturne on a piano found among the rubble. Written immediately after the war and suppressed for decades, The Pianist is a stunning testament to human endurance and the redemptive power of fellow feeling.
Download or read book Memoirs of a Piano written by Kyra Petrovskaya Wayne and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2007-09-04 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: MEMOIRS OF A PIANO is a whimsical chronicle of the vicissitudes of fortune of a French piano during more than a century of historical upheavals. In its own voice Piano regales us with many stories, thus joining some of its famous predecessors such as Voltaire’s bed or Jonathan Swift’s tub, or even Gogol’s nose and Kafka’s cockroach, who all talked! And what stories piano tells! It tells us how it had almost ended up on the barricades during the French Commune. It describes Franz Liszt who had used it at a concert. It meets young prodigy Claude Debussy and travels with him to Russia where it becomes a house piano of the wealthy patroness of Tchaikovsky. Fate interferes with piano’s happy collaboration with Debussy, sending the young man back to France to become eventually world famous composer and the founder of the Impressionism, while piano becomes a witness to the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin on the Black Sea in 1905. Piano’s adventures continue with the dramatic escape from the Red Revolution aboard the yacht Renaissance belonging to a Russian Count. Safe in Turkey, the Count sells the yacht along with the piano to an eccentric American millionaire who renames the boat and sails her among the Greek Islands, buying antiquities. The yacht and the piano barely survive vicious Atlantic storms on their way to New Orleans, where the ruined piano is discarded and abandoned on the beach. It is rescued by a group of black musicians, who repair it and move it to a club where it has to learn the new music- Jazz! The saga of the French piano continues in America, eventually leading to piano’s vainglorious participation in the cruelest sport of the Great Depression-Marathon Dancing. The piano survives it all. Finally, when it ends up among the props at the MGM Movie Studio, and is sold at the famous MGM auction in 1970, piano is an old and wise instrument, which views its history with a touch of nostalgia. It still wants to serve Apollo, the god of light and music, but it has a secret desire to work with young musicians on the threshold of their fame, as it did once with Debussy, at the start of his life. And at last, the great piano’s desire is fulfilled.
Download or read book Memoirs and Reflections written by Evgeny Kissin and published by University Press of New England. This book was released on 2018-01-02 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Evgeny Kissin is an internationally renowned classical pianist admired for his interpretations of the repertoires of Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev. The intensity of Kissin's thinking animates this candid memoir, illuminating his astonishing memory, his fondness for his family and teachers, and his artistic sense of self. Memoirs and Reflections chronicles Kissin's musical education and his early career. His writing is infused with his lifelong engagement with music: an obsessive love that captured, challenged, and nurtured him from a young age. He recounts fortuitous events and serendipitous encounters with remarkable musicians and conductors, including Herbert von Karajan. This book shows Kissin to be surprisingly modest and down-to-earth in spite of his astonishing gift. He writes of his family and friends with tender affection and touching detail. Reading this intimate memoir is like having a private audience with the great pianist himself.
Download or read book Instrumental written by James Rhodes and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An intense, eloquent, and appropriately furious memoir with the transporting beauty of classical music . . . The cumulative effect of the literary concert [Rhodes] gives in these pages is transcendence, both for him and for the reader." --Los Angeles Review of Books “A mesmeric combination of vivid, keen, obsessive precision and raw, urgent energy.” --Zoe Williams, The Guardian James Rhodes's passion for music has been his lifeline--the thread that has held through a life encompassing abuse and turmoil. But whether listening to Rachmaninov on a loop as a traumatized teenager or discovering a Bach adagio while in a hospital ward, he survived his demons by encounters with musical miracles. These--along with a chance encounter with a stranger--inspired him to become the renowned concert pianist he is today. Instrumental is a memoir like no other: unapologetically candid, boldly outspoken, and surprisingly funny--shot through with a mordant wit, even in its darkest moments. A feature film adaptation of Rhodes's incredible story is now in development from Monumental Pictures and BBC Films, following a competitive bidding war involving major U.S. and U.K. companies. An impassioned tribute to the therapeutic powers of music, Instrumental also weaves in fascinating facts about how classical music actually works and about the extraordinary lives of some of the great composers. It explains why and how music has the potential to transform all of our lives.
Download or read book Mastering Piano Technique written by Seymour Fink and published by Hal Leonard Corporation. This book was released on 1992 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: (Amadeus). This holistic approach to the keyboard, based on a sound understanding of the relationship between physical function and musical purpose, is an invaluable resource for pianists and teachers. Professor Fink explains his ideas and demonstrates his innovative developmental exercises that set the pianist free to express the most profound musical ideas. HARDCOVER.
Download or read book My Life with the Great Pianists written by Franz Mohr and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 1996-07 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mohr's humor and personal perspective on the lives of Rubinstein, Horowitz, and other artists mix music lore with quiet faith.
Download or read book Every Good Boy Does Fine A Love Story in Music Lessons written by Jeremy Denk and published by Picador. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A uniquely illuminating memoir of the making of a musician, in which renowned pianist Jeremy Denk explores what he learned from his teachers about classical music: its forms, its power, its meaning - and what it can teach us about ourselves. In this searching and funny memoir, based on his popular New Yorker article, renowned pianist Jeremy Denk traces an implausible journey. Life is difficult enough as a precocious, temperamental, and insufferable six-year-old piano prodigy in New Jersey. But then a family meltdown forces a move to New Mexico, far from classical music’s nerve centers, and he has to please a new taskmaster while navigating cacti, and the perils of junior high school. Escaping from New Mexico at last, he meets a bewildering cast of college music teachers, ranging from boring to profound, and experiences a series of humiliations and triumphs, to find his way as one of the world’s greatest living pianists, a MacArthur 'Genius,' and a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall. There are few writers working today who are willing to eloquently explore both the joys and miseries of artistic practice. Hours of daily repetition, mystifying early advice, pressure from parents and teachers who drove him on – an ongoing battle of talent against two enemies: boredom and insecurity. As we meet various teachers, with cruel and kind streaks, Denk composes a fraught love letter to the act of teaching. He brings you behind the scenes, to look at what motivates both student and teacher, locked in a complicated and psychologically perilous relationship. In Every Good Boy Does Fine, Denk explores how classical music is relevant to 'real life,' despite its distance in time. He dives into pieces and composers that have shaped him – Bach, Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms, among others – and gives unusual lessons on melody, harmony, and rhythm. Why and how do these fundamental elements have such a visceral effect on us? He tries to sum up many of the lessons he has received, to repay the debt of all his amazing teachers; to remind us that music is our creation, and that we need to keep asking questions about its purpose.
Download or read book Music on My Mind written by Willie Smith and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Secret Piano written by Xiao-Mei Zhu and published by AmazonCrossing. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The autobiography of pianist Zhu Xiao-Mei.
Download or read book A Walk on the Wild Side written by Earl Wild and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 886 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Piano Lessons written by Anna Goldsworthy and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2023-08-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The award-winning, much-loved memoir of renowned author and musician Anna Goldsworthy about her first steps towards a life in music. In this remarkable story, Anna Goldsworthy recalls her journey from childhood piano lessons with a local jazz muso to a successful career as a concert pianist. As she discovers passion and ambition, and confronts doubt and disappointment, she learns about much more than technique. Piano Lessons captures the hopes and uncertainties of youth, the fear and exhilaration of performing, and the complex bonds between teacher and student. An unforgettable cast of characters joins her: her family; her friends and rivals; and her teacher, Mrs Sivan, who inspires and challenges her in equal measure, and who transforms what seems an impossible dream into something real and sustaining. This is a story of the getting of wisdom, tender and bittersweet. 'I loved this book. Anna Goldsworthy's memoir left me awed, inspired and humbled.' --Alice Pung 'Marvellous. Enlightenment and joy on every page' --Helen Garner 'An expertly spun narrative, told with wry, self-effacing charm, elegant economy and the genuine love of a student for her teacher' The Australian 'A brilliant memoir ... Goldsworthy is a fine writer.' Big Issue Winner of Newcomer of the Year in the 2010 Australian Book Industry Awards Shortlisted for the Melbourne Prize for Best Writing Shortlisted for the Colin Roderick Award Shortlisted in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards
Download or read book Of Colonial Bungalows and Piano Lessons written by Malavika Karlekar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2024-06-25 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of Colonial Bungalows and Piano Lessons can be read as a metaphor -- as an icon -- of the encounter between cultures. The memoir is based on Monica Chanda's recollections between about 1913 and 1927, of life in Calcutta, districts of undivided Bengal, holidays in Kashmir and in Europe. There is more than a whiff of a Victorian upbringing in the pages. Neither honed in one culture nor fully at home in those practices superimposed by Monica's father's professional life as a member of the Indian Civil Service, her dilemma comes through in these writings. While her father, Jnanendra Nath Gupta, was avowedly against formal schooling for girls, he encouraged his daughter to undertake long and at times hazardous journeys by river, rail and road to perfect her skills as a pianist. Though there was an occasional longing for a freer life like that lived by her cousins, yet, Monica also enjoyed the privileges of living in spacious bungalows with a retinue of servants, going on exclusive launch trips down the Ganges, and being invited to parties at Government House and even Buckingham Palace. While there is a tautness palpable in her narration of an encounter with a clearly racist Eurasian sergeant and almost near-encounter with a tiger, Monica's style avoids hyperbole and dramatic sequences. She presents facts and situations as she saw them -- though there are a few times when emotions of love, fear and excitement ripple through the pages of this tightly-woven memoir. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
Download or read book The Madness written by Terence Lowe and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-22 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1966, Terence Lowe walked out of school at the age of just 14. He soon after secured an apprenticeship in the piano trade but had to wait several weeks until his 15th birthday, the legal age for work. By the age of 20 he was working as an outside tuner for Steinway & Sons in London, tuning pianos at all the capital's concert halls, and the BBC, preparing instruments for the world's most eminent classical musicians including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andre Previn and Pavarotti. By the mid-1970s he had established his own business at 38 Wigmore St, next door to the Wigmore Hall, London W1. His clients were now rock musicians: Pete Townshend, Freddy Mercury, David Bowie, all the members of The Beatles, and The Wombles. While looking after the new Bosendorfer grand for George Martin in his new recording studio on the Caribbean island of Monserrat, he shared a bungalow with Beatles recording engineer Geoff Emerick. At the end of the 1970s he was on the fateful last tour of the band, Wings. In the early 1990s, he reconditioned Keith Richards' psychedelic piano in his Totnes workshop. By now he had lost all his money and taken up life as a semi-feral piano tuner, living aboard an old boat, on the banks of the beautiful river Dart, that he had taken in lieu of payment for work done on a grand piano.
Download or read book My Nine Lives written by Leon Fleisher and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My Nine Lives is a powerful and stirring memoir of one of the greatest pianists of the postwar era—an inspiring tale of courage, compassion, and triumph over outstanding odds. At the peak of his career, celebrated pianist Leon Fleisher suddenly lost the use of two fingers on his right hand. Miraculously, at the age of sixty-six, he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, and learned to manage it through a combination of physical therapy and experimental Botox injections. In 2003 Fleisher returned to Carnegie Hall to give his first two-handed performance in over three decades and brought down the house. With his coauthor, celebrated music critic Anne Midgette, Fleisher reveals here for the first time the depression that threatened to engulf him as his condition worsened, and the sheer love of music that rescued him from complete self-destruction.
Download or read book Music On My Mind written by Willie Smith and published by Da Capo Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 1975-03-21 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
