Believe Your Ears : Life of a Lyric Composer

Believe Your Ears: Life of a Lyric Composer is the memoir of composer Kirke Mechem, whose unorthodox path to music provides a fascinating narrative. He worked as a newspaper reporter, a touring tennis player and a Stanford creative writing major before studying composition and conducting at Harvard. His lyric style belongs to no particular “school,” avoiding the trends, isms, experiments, fads and lunacies of the period. He asks music lovers to believe their own ears, not the lectures of “experts.” Along the way, readers will meet Dimitri Shostakovich, Wallace Stegner, Billie Jean King, The Grateful Dead, Benjamin Britten, Bill Tilden and Aaron Copland—a who’s who of talent in Mechem’s storied career.