Daughters of song

by Paula Huston

At a conservatory in Baltimore, Sylvia studies piano with the venerable Cornelius Toft, whose disapproval of her efforts to play Beethoven's Opus 111 seems related somehow to her inability to fall in love, to understand Hegel, to grow up. In Daughters of Song, Paula Huston weaves together Sylvia's story with the stories of Toft's other students: the famous Moon Ja Koh, a world-class concert pianist who is all too aware of how success is imposing on her life; Peter, classically trained, yet drawn more to the beat of jazz; Jan, who loves Sylvia and the music of Liszt; and Brandon, handsome, arrogant, accomplished, and Toft's favorite. As these characters and their lives come together in Daughters of Song, they become a symphony of voices, a song of life, of love, wisdom, and endurance.