#New york boy music prodigy professional#

But under all this struggle is a love letter to the act of teaching. There are few writers capable of so deeply illuminating the trials of artistic practice-hours of daily repetition, mystifying advice, pressure from parents and teachers.

#New york boy music prodigy professional#

Many classical music memoirs focus on famous musicians and professional accomplishments, but this book focuses on the everyday: neighborhood teacher, high school orchestra, local conductor. After many humiliations and a few triumphs, he ultimately finds his way as a world-touring pianist, a MacArthur вЂњGenius,вЂќ and a frequent performer at Carnegie Hall. At sixteen he escapes to college in Ohio, only to encounter a bewildering new cast of music teachers, both kind and cruel.

There, Denk must please a new taskmaster, an embittered but devoted professor, while navigating junior high school. His life is already a little tough as a precocious, temperamental six-year-old piano prodigy in New Jersey, and then a family meltdown forces a move to New Mexico. In Every Good Boy Does Fine, renowned pianist Jeremy Denk traces an implausible journey.