The Slyness of Jeremy Denk

ONE of the coolest and most genuinely individualistic musicians I've ever met is the classical pianist Jeremy Denk, whose blog Think Denk is witty, sometimes loopy, and always provocative. He's an enthusiast of Nabokov and Proust, and a player of very deep feeling whose treatment of Ives has left some friends spellbound.

HERE is my piece on Denk, who comes to town next week for two concerts with the LA Chamber Orchestra.


The roots of Denk's blog -- which The New Yorker's Alex Ross has praised as bearing the kind of voice that could only exist on the web -- begin with him rehearsing Mozart at a church in El Paso.


"This crazy man came into the church," Denk recalls, "and started lecturing me on Mozart and the purpose of music. I wasn't entirely sure if he was going to kill me . . . or what."


I urge all music lovers to check this guy out. He's a fan of Magnetic Fields and Rufus Wainwright and a truly lively mind.