{"product_id":"from-ear-to-ear-a-pianists-love-affair-with-song-9781324005483","title":"From Ear to Ear: A Pianist's Love Affair with Song","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhile other kids were enjoying the head-bashing pleasures of tackle football, a freshly bar mitzvahed Steven Blier was inhaling operas and getting his first taste of accompanying professional singers. Beginning with impromptu piano gigs in the 1960s, Blier ascended to a dazzling career as an accompanist, teacher, and producer that has taken him to the highest reaches of artistic achievement. Today, Blier has partnered many of the brightest stars in music and thousands have fallen in love with his work via his acclaimed New York Festival of Song.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eFrom Ear to Ear\u003c\/em\u003e recounts his picaresque and unfailingly entertaining road to a successful career as a collaborative pianist, bringing to life his partnerships with iconic performers like Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Jessye Norman, Cecilia Bartoli, and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and beloved mentors, including Alvin Epstein and Martha Schlamme. Drawing on his innovative work as a vocal coach and concert producer, Blier takes readers deep into his artistic process, revealing the intricacies of song interpretation, what makes certain songs tick, and what music has meant in his life and what it can mean in anyone's. But Blier also tells a parallel story: his lifelong battle with a rare form of muscular dystrophy. Aided by his intense determination, as well as his wry sense of humor, Blier continues his life at the piano.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTrue to a musician for whom nothing is off limits, \u003cem\u003eFrom Ear to Ear\u003c\/em\u003e showcases Blier's voracious musical appetite, dazzling wit, and the hard-earned lessons from a lifetime of performance. As Adam Gopnik writes in his foreword, Blier's career and achievements are \"genuinely heroic, a testament to the power of music.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eGopnik, Adam:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eAdam Gopnik\u003c\/strong\u003e is a staff writer at \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e and has written for the magazine since 1986. He has three National Magazine awards for essays and for criticism. The author of numerous best-selling books, including \u003cem\u003eParis to the Moon\u003c\/em\u003e, he lives in New York City.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlier, Steven:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eSteven Blier\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Grammy Award-winning pianist, acclaimed accompanist, and co-founder and artistic director of the New York Festival of Song. He has taught at the Juilliard School since 1992 and lives in New York City.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51721017164050,"sku":"9781324005483","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_af8eec14-d473-40b9-8eb2-4f924aae4f8d.jpg?v=1762946669","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/from-ear-to-ear-a-pianists-love-affair-with-song-9781324005483","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}