The most famous Attwood in my family is my son, Koji. He is
an extraordinary pianist (and also a good person). He was accepted into Curtis
when he was 16 (Daddy brag here: acceptance rate at Harvard is 6 percent;
acceptance rate at Curtis is 3.5 percent). I remember hugging a street sign
post outside the Curtis building near Rittenhouse Square in Philly while he was
auditioning. He is a remarkable artist and also student of the piano art and
repertoire. His PhD is from Juilliard. He often plays little-known composers
worthy of hearing, many of them Russian. He transcribes pieces for piano from
guitar and quartets and symphony scores. He was Baryshnikov's accompanist for that great dancer's solo tour. He played the Chopin Concerto for two seasons in a performance at the American Ballet Theatre. Here is the YouTube url for many of
his performances in noted halls and just fooling around. His stuff has been
viewed more than 250,000 times. You can find him on Facebook and see even more.
I remember when he was 8 years old that he got up at 5 a.m. to practice and I
shortly after him to work on "The 41st Sermon." It was a productive
time for both of us. And, of late, he's become a hell of a chef.
