The Blue Piano and Other Stories

Carol Montparker's 31 new stories are remarkable for their frankness and emotional honesty. Creative nonfiction from a life in music, they are in turn tender and intense, lyrical and riotously funny. There is a poignant friendship with the elderly, irresistible Rudi; the anguish of a marriage that needed to end; true love found later; a narrow escape from an outlandishly surreal piano; moving tales from her teaching studio, each story with its own satisfying shape and rhythm.

Fans of Carol Montparker's previous books, A Pianist's Landscape and The Anatomy of a New York Debut Recital, and her columns for Clavier, will devour these new revelations. Carol articulates thoughts that most of us cannot articulate; she has an artist's eye, a musician's ear, and a gifted writer's knack for description, but it is her uncanny ability to evoke a response as she looks back over a real life from a vantage point of subsequent happiness that will prevent readers from putting down this collection until they have read every single piece.

This is certainly the Carol Montparker we have come to know from her other writing, but she reveals more of herself and her past. Each challenge, encounter, and turning point rings true with joy, humor, hilarity, sorrow, rage, pain, bewilderment, satisfaction, awe, peace--we trust the sensitive voice of a person who recounts aspects of her life in all fairness. Rare will be the reader who is not brought to tears and giggles by these human stories of an artist and woman of uncommon insight.

"The pianist's latest book deserves to be read by anyone who plays or wishes to play or ever wished to play the piano, and by everyone else too. She writes about music in a sane, wise, humane voice in this charming, instructive, often moving collection."
-- Michael Kimmelman, Chief Art Critic, The New York Times, pianist

"Carol Montparker, pianist and a vocational painter, writes with warm, subtle colors and lines of delicate precision. Her autobiographical stories sparkle with vignettes of people, places and pets, but their deeper subject is that of the woman pianist in a male-dominated world. The subject is not new, but Ms. Montparker brings to it a rewarding freshness of insight."
-- Jerome Lowenthal, Faculty Juilliard School, pianist

"Carol Montparker has revealed the very nerve center of her inner life as a woman and musician. These thirty-one short stories are full of surprises, adventures, indeed, sensitivities of many kinds. They are tender-hearted and passionate, each polished in prose that rivets the reader---perfect cameos which linger long in the heart."
-- David Dubal, Author, Host, Reflections from the Piano, WQXR radio, pianist

"If you buy only one book this year, it should be this one. Many teachers may remember Carol Montparker from her column in Clavier magazine. Ms. Montparker is a Steinway Artist and performer of solo and chamber music. She is a teacher, visual artist, writer, and beautiful person. This book is a collection of stories from her life. They are written in such a way that I felt as if she were communicating them only to me, and, after reading them we became very close friends. The stories were inspiring, funny, poignant, and need to be read again and again. This is the book you buy and give to special friends… Carol Montparker has written a book that is a treasured glimpse into the life of an extraordinary person."
-- Dr. Vicki King, Piano Guild Notes

"Of course it is deliciously apt that this unusual, well-written collection of 31 autobiographical stories by concert pianist, painter, music teacher, writer, editor, and gardener, Carol Montparker, should be published by a press called Amadeus, (the author’s favorite composer.) Although all the stories in The Blue Piano have music at the center, they radiate and resonate as a sustained creative narrative about “reckoning” with life, musically and personally. The collection sings with a lyrical beauty about the pleasures and pains of being a professional artist… Clearly Montparker has mastered the pitch, rhythms, and colors of good prose as well as those of the keyboard. Though basically chronological, the stories reflect a knowing sense of the elements of good story-telling—selective structure and details, continuity of theme, and a diverse cast of secondary characters…."
-- Joan Baum, The Independent (L.I.--the Hamptons, and North Fork)

"This collection by Carol Montparker, providing 31 short stories covering musicianship and adventures in the music world, is hard to easily categorize: the stories represent very real insights into the music world and sensibility, yet contain the passion and vivid descriptions of fiction. Suffice it to say that musicians in general, and pianists in particular will relish these lyrical first-person insights."
-- The Midwest Book Review

"Carol Montparker has enriched the lives of music teachers for many years through her work as an editor and regular columnist for Clavier, and her first two books. In her latest book she weaves together a collage of short vignettes concerning her multi-faceted life. This book’s 31 short chapters gracefully narrate a wide array of subjects…reminiscences, reflections… Montparker’s ability to bring matters of the heart to the printed page is evident throughout….her craftsmanship as a wordsmith shines through. She willingly shares the highs and lows of her life, provoking joy at one moment and serious contemplation the next. Through her skillful writing, she draws the reader into her world and graciously recounts significant moments and experiences.

A wonderful volume for vacation or leisure reading, this book is a perfect accompaniment to a day at the beach or an evening by the fireplace with a good cup of coffee. The stories will warm your heart and hopefully remind you of the profound joys of music-making, music teaching, and life."
-- Steve Betts, American Piano Teacher

"Anyone who appreciates culture and nature will enjoy The Blue Piano and Other Stories by Carol Montparker. This book is almost therapeutic for teachers ..I was moved by many of the chapters, yet found myself laughing out loud in others…Her love of writing, traveling, watercolor painting, gardening and nature come through. For pianists and teachers the stories of her work with students are especially inspiring. Montparker is a wonderful storyteller, and her straightforward, open style is refreshing."
-- Lynette Zelis, Clavier

“The author's ability to balance the tragic consequences of human frailty with an erudite if obstinate optimism gives this book the rare quality of being untiringly readable. . . . The Blue Piano powerfully conveys the endogenous talent, hard work and self-discipline required to succeed as a professional artist. Yet the author communicates the positive value of all her experiences so entertainingly that it's not so much her success as a concert pianist the reader admires as her understanding, her talent for witty observation and her enviable peace of mind."
-- Good Reading Magazine

". . . [Carol Montparker] evokes a true sense of atmosphere in real life stories that are forthright and witty. . . [Her] boundless enthusiasm for life far exceeds the parameters of a musician's life and her responses to challenges and encounters along the way will ring true for all readers, not only pianists. Compelling and delightful reading." 
-- Music Teacher Magazine

"Readers will be moved to both tears and laughter as they work their way through these clever and intriguing stories that are torn from real life. It is a real treat."
-- Alan Caruba, www.bookviews.com

" . . . The stories represent very real insights into the music world and sensibility, yet contain the passion and vivid descriptions of fiction. Suffice it to say that musicians in general and pianists in particular will relish these lyrical first-person insights.”
-- The Bookwatch

 "These short stories and essays are some of [Montparker's] memories, 'harvested' from the life of an unusually widely talented, perceptive and sensitive artist . . . . It is her talent for communication that makes this book so totally engaging. . . . The charm of these stories will fascinate musicians and non-musicians alike." 
-- Piano Professional UK

This personal diary kept by a pianist preparing for her Carnegie Recital Hall debut in New York, is a provocative account of the entire experience from the moment of decision, through months of work and development to the event itself.

Told with humor and surprising candor, it probes and reveals her innermost responses and takes the reader along on a roller-coaster of emotions from terror to exhilaration.

Excerpts from this Chronicle by Carol Montparker about her Carnegie debut recital, were included in the extraordinary book titled, Ariadne’s Thread; A Collection of Contemporary Women’s Diaries and Journals, edited by Lyn Lifshin and published by Harper and Row (1982.) Some of the other women whose journals were excerpted in this anthology are Anne Sexton, Sylvia Plath, May Sarton, Maxine Kumin, Eleanor Coppola, and many others.

"This superb diary was without question, one of the most un-put-downable bits of music journalism that I have come across in many years."
-- GLENN GOULD

"I was on my way to do a recital on the West Coast when I read your book. Seeing how much it meant to you to have the privilege of playing the great works, and sharing the miracle of their creation with your public, and your humility throughout, awoke in me that which was temporarily dormant...my own feeling of being privileged to be a concert pianist. Thank you for your inspiring book."
-- HORACIO GUTIERREZ

"I greatly admired your Anatomy of a New York Debut Recital when it first came out and just now I have hunted it down in my library and found it to be just as good as I remembered it. Rereading it gave me a flush of satisfaction. Over the years I have always been impressed by your thoughtful, direct approach."
-- DONAL HENAHAN, The New York Times

"Probably the best book about music anywhere!"
-- ROBERT SILVERMAN, Publisher, The Piano Quarterly

"I read your book with delight and I plan to write about the pleasure, enlightenment, and interest it gave me."
-- ANDREW PORTER, The New Yorker

"Pianist writes Jewel of a Journal...a delicious little book...quirky insights."
-- ROBERT FINN, The Cleveland Plain Dealer

This book is sold exclusively at this website. To purchase a copy of Anatomy of a New York Debut Recital please go to the Order page or click Here.

A Pianist's Landscape
published by Amadeus Press (AmadeusPress.com)

I find your playing to be unfailingly graceful and affecting. You are a real artist, which is also made clear by your book....It is a model of its kind, touching and clever and invaluable as a chronicle of musical self-exploration.
MICHAEL KIMMELMAN, The New York Times

One of the chief delights of A Pianist's Landscape is that it is so engagingly well written: it opens things up to the lay reader without the slightest hint of awkwardness or pretension. Montparker talks about what musicians think, how they interact, their foibles, joys and fears, with the ease of someone talking about what's growing in her garden. The writing is direct, the expression of thoughts and feelings remarkably concrete. And yet there is great finesse as well. As an avid watercolorist, Montparker naturally knows that much can be suggested by a small gesture. She paints a picture of her own domestic life, surrounded by objets d'art and serenaded by avian songsters, that immediately invites the reader to share in her pleasure. TED LIBBEY, The Washington Post

I would like to tell you how much I enjoyed your book. It is beautiful, full of colour and vitality, moving forward, yet dwelling so lovingly over many significant details. You paint very touching portraits and know so well how to tell a story. You have insight and describe things with so much candor and sensitivity. RADU LUPU

A Pianist's Landscape reveals the interior world of a total musician. Carol Montparker writes with courage, grace, wit, and passion about the mundane as well as the sublime aspects of being a pianist. From the magically inspiring song of the thrush to the amusing anxieties of concert hall disasters--this landscape is filled with riches for the reader's pleasure. Professionals, non-musicians, and all the degrees between the two will be captivated by the musical heart and mind revealed in this book.
ANDRE WATTS

"The unquenchable and world-straddling nature of [Montparker's] interests, to which this book bears witness, . . . confirms why she is such an inspired interviewer. . . . Her sensitive antennae allow her to pick up all that is most characteristic in the musical culture of her era…..Having spent so many years interviewing the great an the good of the musical profession-framing questions for others to answer–it must be as much a relief for Carol Montparker as it is for us, her readers, to have her at last dealing herself with these same issues in the depth, eloquence and personal candour they deserve. In fact, one might describe the whole book at an interview conducted this time with herself!” MALCOLM TROUP, Piano Journal, Winter 1999

"Her sense of music as a spontaneous adventure and her reverence for the piano as a link to one’s inner life show through in this variegated collection of essays. ….Her explorations of the pianist’s predicament are like variegated preludes in such keys as memorizing, practicing, choice of instrument, performing, teaching, and child-rearing."Keyboard Companion, 1999

"Thoroughly engaging....Her essays will be enjoyed not by musicians only, but by all music lovers who want to be swept away by an honest and warm description of an artist’s life and its trials and rewards. " ALAN HIRSCH, Booklist

To purchase a copy of " A Pianist's Landscape,"
please click on the link to AmadeusPress.com

A new book from Carol Montparker about love, The Love between a Pianist and her Dog, and their Love of Music.

This beautiful story of a concert pianist and Polly, her constant companion, describes their preparation for a concert at Carnegie Hall.

Together they accomplish a memorable and extraordinary concert.

In page after page of affectionate text and spontaneous watercolors, the author, pianist Carol Montparker, depicts their work and their play. The story is a musical fairy tale that  will charm both adults and children; with a special gift to readers of a CD of the piano recital !* (Just as Polly heard it being practiced and performed-- and drawn from live performances by Ms. Montparker).

*(The CD includes a Mozart sonata, two Schubert Klavierstücke, three Chopin compositions, and the Ravel Sonatine.)
 

All content in this website is © Carol Montparker, 2001-2008. All rights reserved.