Acknowledgments

Thanks must go first to my editor, Jonathan Segal of Alfred A. Knopf, whose idea this project was; his assistant, Joey McGarvey, who helped launch it into production; and Maggie Hinders, for her beautiful book design. Throughout the process, my wife Adrienne’s advice and support were indispensable.

Many musician friends were invaluable sources of information and inspiration. They include especially two walking encyclopedias of the piano, David Dubal and Joseph Smith, and the many stellar artists who contributed commentary to this book, as well as Emanuele Arciuli, Ed Berlin, Andy Bloch, Joseph Bloch, Bradley Brookshire, Sara Davis Buechner, Noah Creshevsky, Jacob Greenberg, Michael Harrison, Peter Hoyt, Dick Hyman, Andy LaVerne, Steven Lubin, Max Morath, Peter Mintun, Roberto Prosseda, Nancy Reich, Charles Rosen, Riccardo Scivales, Jeremy Siepmann, and Amanda Villepastour. I remain forever indebted to my late friend Nicolas Slonimsky. Of course, any misjudgments or errors in the book are entirely mine.

I am also grateful to the following people for many kindnesses: David Botwinik, Maxine and Dr. Frank Brady, Douglas di Carlo, Liam Comerford, Michael Cuscuna, Larry Fine, Kathy Geisler, Eric Gibson, Herbert Goldman, Peter Goodrich, Richard Halpern, Alex Hassan, Josephine Hemsing and her husband, Dan Cameron, Nat Hentoff, Tad Hershorn, Valeska Hilbig, Todd Kamelhar, Stacey Kluck, Laura Kuhn, Cem Kurosman, Christina Linsenmeyer, Ron Losby, Len Lyons, Loraine Machlin, Eileen MacMahon, Holly Metz, Anne Midgette, Bruno Monsaingeon, Nell Mulderry, Stewart Pollens, Stephen Russo, Eva Rubinstein, Alina Rubinstein, David Sachs, Peter Schaaf, Zach Schwartz, Tyler Tadej, J. W. Whitten, and Ed Young.