Chapter 1

Marlena Parcells was known as the consummate piano teacher of young girls and boys in Boston, Massachusetts. Marlena accepted only the children of well-to-do merchants and families of prominence for tutelage at her studio.

Before turning to teaching piano as a career, Marlena had a distinguished but short career as a concert pianist. At the age of fifteen, Marlena was featured in concerts at Carnegie Hall. It was 1955, and Marlena was eighteen when she played for President Dwight Eisenhower at the white house. At the age of twenty-two, a freak accident crushed two fingers on her left hand. Marlena’s career as a concert pianist was over.

After spending two years in denial and constant visits to specialists, Marlena resigned herself to her fate. Marlena started taking in students to earn a living. She found that she actually had a flair for teaching and was soon overwhelmed with requests to take on more students. Marlena doubled and then tripled her hourly fee. All of her students from working-class families eventually went elsewhere for training.

All but one. His name was Thomas Taylor. Marlena had been teaching for a year when his mother brought the six-year-old boy to see Marlena for the first time. Mrs. Taylor was a single mother who worked as a seamstress and told Marlena how he was obsessed with the upright piano left in her apartment by a previous tenant. She asked if Marlena would teach him to play properly. Marlena sat him down next to her at her baby grand piano and played a simple tune. Thomas smiled and played the tune perfectly. Marlena spent an unprecedented forty-five minutes talking and playing slightly more difficult tunes that Thomas emulated nearly perfectly. Marlena could see his mother was going to be hard-pressed to be able to afford even her then reasonable fees. The child intrigued her, and she saw something in him that other students his age lacked. She felt she needed to test Thomas further to see if what she thought was true.

Marlena told his mother a white lie. For him to be accepted, he would need to undergo further tests. If she found him acceptable, and his mother was satisfied with her instruction, only then would she be asked to pay for her time.

One month later, Marlena knew she had discovered a remarkable prodigy. Marlena sent her piano tuner to Thomas’ mother’s apartment to tune their piano and see to any repairs. Marlena became obsessed with Thomas and spent two hours with him four times a week.

To justify his mother not paying for his training Marlena told his mother she would suspend any fees if she would allow her to take Thomas with her to impress important clients with her studio’s teaching skills. Marlena knew Mrs. Taylor would sacrifice almost anything to give Thomas the lessons he enjoys so much. Marlena could see the relief on her face when she presented her proposal. After five months of training, Thomas was proficient at playing short classical pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, and many of the day’s more popular show tunes. Watching a seven-year-old play the way he did easily convinced her clients that her studio was worth the fee she was charging. Marlena hired two very qualified teachers to teach the less talented. She concentrated on teaching Thomas and three other students that had exceptional skills. Although, neither of them was able to match Thomas’ grasp of the instrument at such a young age.

Thomas turned fourteen, and Marlena still hasn’t charged his mother a penny for his training. They were at the point in his training where Marlena sat next to him as he played, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the music that flowed from his fingers. Marlena was there to correct minor errors only a trained musician would notice and occasionally prod him when he had a lapse in concentration. Their work together concentrated on how to interpret the music and make it his own.

Thomas was fifteen when Marlena arranged for his first appearance in New York City to introduce him to the world. It was with the New York Symphony. Marlena had called in a favor from her days as a concert pianist. After his audition, Thomas was invited to play one concerto. Their fee barely covered expenses. However, some of the right people noticed, and he started receiving invitations to appear as a guest pianist at other concert halls.

Thomas’ success as a guest pianist led to requests for a solo concert in Boston and Providence. The word of his talent spread. Balancing his schoolwork and music became a challenge, but Malena was adamant about his education and paid his tuition at a private boy’s school. If he was behind in his studies, she hired a tutor.

Thomas was seventeen and his first summer after graduating from St. John’s Academy for boys when he gave his first solo concert in New York City. Marlena had secured a booking for two matinees and three evening performances.

It was his last performance before they were to take the train back to Boston in the morning. When he walked off the stage to the thunderous standing ovation, Marlena threw her arms around him and kissed him, not on the cheek but on his lips. “You were wonderful. I am so proud of you.” Marlena was so excited for him that she kissed him again. Her face showed the pride she felt in their accomplishment. She turned him around. “Go, Thomas, take another bow and play an encore. They love you.” Thomas went back on stage to take another bow, played an encore to the attentive audience, and was again rewarded with thunderous applause.

When the curtain came down, he walked off the stage, put his arms around Marlena, and kissed her, “Thank you, Marlena. You have no idea what I am feeling right now.” When he kissed her again, Marlena pulled back and saw what he was feeling in his eyes, the excitement, the desire. Marlena was no stranger to those looks from men in the days when she was the diva. She even favored a few with a night in my bed. She could not believe that Thomas had that same look at his young age. The adrenalin and excitement from the audience’s adoration must be flowing through his veins.