About this item
The remarkable odyssey of a classical guitar prodigy who abandons his beloved instrument in defeat at the age of twenty-five, but comes back to it years later with a new kind of passion.With insight and humor, Glenn Kurtz takes us from his first lessons at a small Long Island guitar school at the age of eight, to a national television appearance backing jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie, to his acceptance at the elite New England Conservatory of Music. He makes bittersweet and vivid a young man's struggle to forge an artist's life - and to become the next Segovia. And we see him after graduation, pursuing a solo career in Vienna but realizing that he has neither the ego nor the talent required to succeed at the upper reaches of the world of classical guitar - and giving up the instrument, and his dream, entirely.
About the Author
Glenn Kurtz is a graduate of the New England Conservatory-Tufts University double degree program. He also holds a PhD from Stanford University in German Studies and Comparative Literature. His writing has been published in The New York Times, Lost, ZYZZYVA, Tema Celeste, and elsewhere, and his work has been featured on NPR's "Weekend Edition," "To the Best of our Knowledge," and "West Coast Live." He has taught at Stanford University, San Francisco State University, and California College of the Arts. He now lives in New York City and is working on a novel. Find out about current projects and appearances at his website, www.glennkurtz.com.
