Crescendo: Chronicles of an Adventurous Violinist at Grassroots Bookstore on Nov 3 @7:30. Music and stories from my memoir. “Grass Roots is honored to host Anthea Kreston for her memoir, Crescendo. Weaving together music and stories from her book, and performing on the violin that was stolen on a fast train in Germany, she delights with tales both tragic and funny.
When American violinist Anthea Kreston is selected as the fourth member of Germany’s Artemis Quartet, it is the culmination of decades of dedication. In Crescendo, her enchanting and deeply personal memoir, Kreston writes about growing up in a well-to-do but difficult family in Chicago, leaving home at sixteen, studying at the ultracompetitive Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (Hilary Hahn was a classmate), then leaving it all behind for a commune in Oregon. “A singular voice in music, and now in words. Crescendo is a searingly honest look at the classical music world from within and manages to be as funny and uplifting as it is devastating. The same vulnerability and power that makes Kreston such a compelling instrumentalist is equally commanding in her prose. This memoir is a necessary and insightful look at what makes being an artist, a woman, a mother, and all three at the same time so incredibly challenging, but worthwhile.”