Ari Goldman decides to return to the cello after a twenty-five year hiatus. He starts out in his son's youth orchestra, and eventually learns of and joins the New York Late-Starters String Orchestra, an amateur adult orchestra which accepts beginners on up. Goldman shares his musical journey in his book The Late Starters Orchestra. Mostly a memoir, it also includes the science of learning music (especially as an adult vs. as a child), music history, music appreciation, and vignettes of some of the other people he meets in the world of recreational music making. His story is a familiar one to me. Most of my adult music students have returned to their instruments after a long hiatus. A few of them are…

  American opera star and recitalist Jessye Norman is one of the most celebrated and highly respected singers in the world. In her upcoming memoir Stand and Straight and Sing!, she shares what it was like to grow up in the segregated South and how she made her way to stages across the globe. Norman's conversational tone is intimate and remarkably kind, even when she shares a story that could portray a colleague in an unflattering light. She also has a rebellious, "don't tell me I can't do that" kind of spirit, combined with a hint of diva, a hint of tomboy, and a very strong sense of security and comfort in who she is. To be honest, I found her to…