Jeffrey Solow, cello virtuoso and past president of the American String Teachers Association

“Retired after a 50-year career as a molecular biologist heading his own laboratory at the US National Institutes of Health, Joram Piatigorsky has now embarked on a second career as a writer. As one would expect, he offers an intimate view of Piatigorsky as a person and a personality (and in so doing, illuminates and contextualizes Mr Blok) and, being a scientist, he relates and reflects on his own career and research. But most of all he addresses the challenge of finding oneself. Each of us must meet that challenge, but with Piatigorsky as a father and Jacqueline de Rothschild (of the banking dynasty) as his mother, ‘from birth, the extraordinary was ordinary in my family’. Joram is a spectacular writer; his memoir is not only skillfully and elegantly composed, but honest, insightful and poignant. Joram’s achievement encompasses reflections on creativity in both art and science, giving and accepting feedback and criticism, the qualities of leadership, and most of all, the joy and fulfillment of living one’s own life on one’s own terms.

Excerpt From “Jeffrey Solow reviews a novel by cellist Gregor Piatigorsky and a memoir by his son Joram” as it appears on TheStrad.com