by Jeremy Denk
First published 2022
Jeremy Denk chronicles his unlikely path from a difficult six-year-old piano prodigy in New Jersey to a MacArthur Grant winner performing at Carnegie Hall. A family crisis forces young Denk to relocate to New Mexico, where he must satisfy a bitter but dedicated professor while surviving junior high. At sixteen, he flees to college in Ohio and encounters a confusing array of music instructors, some generous and others harsh. Through countless humiliations and occasional victories, Denk eventually emerges as a world-touring pianist. Rather than focusing on celebrity musicians and glamorous achievements, Denk celebrates the ordinary figures who shaped him: neighborhood instructors, high school orchestras, local conductors. He examines the daily grind of artistic development, including endless practice sessions, confusing guidance, and pressure from adults. The memoir doubles as a love letter to teaching itself. Denk explores the composers who influenced him most deeply, including Bach, Mozart, and Brahms, while explaining fundamental concepts like melody, harmony, and rhythm. He reveals why teachers fixate on metronomes and why harmony puzzles most people. Ultimately, Denk repays his debt to his mentors while exploring music's many purposes: comfort, protection from cynicism, joy, distraction, sanctuary, and a bridge to understanding others.
Genres: autobiography, memoir, biography-memoir, 21st-century, classical-music, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Carnegie Hall, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio
Period: 16th Century
368 pages · Hardcover · Random House