To Play Again: A Memoir of Musical Survival

by Carol Rosenberger

Overview

At age twenty-one, while she was working with the legendary Nadia Boulanger in France, concert pianist Carol Rosenberger was stricken with paralytic polio—a condition that knocked out the very muscles she needed in order to play. But Rosenberger refused to give up. Over the next ten years, against all medical advice, she struggled to rebuild her technique and regain her life as a musician—and went on to not only play again, but to receive critical acclaim for her performances and recordings. Beautifully written and deeply inspiring, To Play Again is Rosenberger’s chronicle of making possible the seemingly impossible: overcoming career-ending hardships to perform again.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631523274
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	04/17/2018
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

“Ravishing, elegant pianism” wrote The New York Times of American pianist Carol Rosenberger, whose four-decade concert career is represented by over thirty recordings on the Delos label. Many are enduring favorites worldwide, and have brought her a Grammy Award nomination, Gramophone’s Critic’s Choice Award, Stereo Review’s Best Classical Compact Disc, and Billboard’s All Time Great Recording. Rosenberger has been the subject of articles in many leading newspapers and magazines, and as an artist teacher, was a faculty member of the University of Southern California and gave performance workshops nationwide. With Delos founder Amelia Haygood, Carol coproduced many recordings by world-class artists. After Haygood’s death in 2007, Carol became the label’s director.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Chopin Interrupted 1

Chapter 2 The Attack 6

Chapter 3 The Unthinkable 21

Chapter 4 A View from the Broom Closet 31

Chapter 5 Dreams, Sun, and Pain 42

Chapter 6 "Household Gods" and the Oracle of Paris 55

Chapter 7 Kinship with a Damaged City 77

Chapter 8 Struggling Forward in Vienna 96

Chapter 9 Clarity in Copenhagen 117

Chapter 10 Webster, Santa Fe, and the Move West 139

Chapter 11 Amelia and the Death-Defying Leap 159

Chapter 12 The First Miracle 186

Chapter 13 Back Onstage, and Heartbreak in LA 199

Chapter 14 Hope Hopkins and the Second Miracle 214

Chapter 15 A Time of Triumph and Transition 228

Chapter 16 Carnegie Hall and Amelia's Brainstorm 242

Chapter 17 Braving the Microphone-and a Tragic Loss 258

Chapter 18 A Concert and Recording Diary 269

Chapter 19 New Frontiers 284

Chapter 20 My Walk with Beethoven 293

Chapter 21 To Everything There Is a Season 299

Acknowledgments 329

Quotes from Recording Reviews 331

Carol Rosenberger Discography 333

About the Author 337

Editorial Reviews

01/22/2018
Concert pianist Rosenberger shares the powerful story of her struggle to perform despite her physical disability. In 1955, at age 21, Rosenberger developed paralytic polio just as she was about to begin her life as a professional stage musician. Until that moment, the Detroit-born musician had been driven by a consuming passion for the piano; thereafter she faced the possibility that agonizing pain and dead nerves would end her career before it started. Rosenberger tells of spending nearly a decade in intensive recovery, getting treatment in Europe and then in the U.S. Polio had wrecked her confidence and left her unmoored in the music world. She began teaching students and playing for friends and family, and slowly built up her strength and confidence. With tremendous effort and practice, Rosenberger came up with adaptive techniques that enabled her to perform; in 1970 she made her debut tour, performing throughout the U.S. and Europe. She hid her disabilities so well that the managers who sent her on her first tour had no idea that she’d had polio. Rosenberger has written a moving and at times heartbreaking chronicle of her achievements, offering inspiration and hope to those confronted with the seemingly insurmountable. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2018 IPPY Bronze Medal Winner in Autobiography/Memoir III (Personal Struggle/Health Issues) 2018 Sarton Women's Book Awards finalist in Memoir “....a moving and at times heartbreaking chronicle of her achievements, offering inspiration and hope to those confronted with the seemingly insurmountable.”
—Publishers Weekly

"...fascinating....Hers is an encouraging story of the losing and taking back of a dream."
—Booklist

“In addition to being one of the finest pianists of her generation, Carol Rosenberger is also one of the most eloquent—as her new book triumphantly attests. Hers is an important and inspiring story, and she tells it superbly.”
—Jim Svejda, commentator on KUSC radio, called “The High Priest of Classical Music” by the Los Angeles Times

“Carol Rosenberger’s book, To Play Again, is a very touching and remarkable story of a great artist, her battle with paralytic polio at age twenty-one, and her triumph over the disease. It is beautifully written with great sensitivity and should be an inspiration to all that are exposed to this rich life of music and much beyond."
—Gerard Schwarz, celebrated American conductor

“Any reader seeking insight into how the art of music can intertwine with a truly courageous life saga need look no further. Carol Rosenberger’s To Play Again is a gripping journey through time, place, and emotion that will have you marveling at her indefatigable determination to attain her dreams against the most formidable odds.”
—Mark Abel, composer, writer, and onetime foreign editor, San Francisco Chronicle

“Carol Rosenberger’s story is one of courage in the face of so many challenges. Just as she starts her concert career in earnest she has to learn all over again how to play and how to live. An amazing story of resilience and accomplishment.”
—Leslie Ann Jones, Director of Music Recording and Scoring, Skywalker Sound

“Carol Rosenberger is a unique artist whose career spans surprising excursions, useful detours, and welcome extensions. She has always been smart, tough, honest, funny, authoritative, and eminently compelling. Happily, her memoir, To Play Again, illuminates all of these qualities.”
—Martin Bernheimer, music critic, Financial Times

From the Publisher