Sounding Brass

An extraordinary tale of a collaboration between a composing prodigy and a Washington politician, the story of how a Thai schoolboy came to create the entire oevre of an American composer is fabulous in the true sense of the world ... a modern mythic journey. A true story ... yet one that beggars belief ... with cameo appearances by all sorts of members of the Washington "swamp" ... and the odd science fiction writer dropping in for a chat.... "It's a story about the human need to want to break boundaries and exceed limitations. It's about dreams and aspirations, and in the end we need to ask questions about the very nature of art and about why we as humans need art in our lives. "It is also the story of two people from vastly divergent cultures, two people who both, perhaps, felt alienated from the people and situations that surrounded them, and who came to share a strangely intimate bond." A never-before-told secret history, this memoir by the first Asian to be awarded the European Cultural Achievement Award is an eye-opener.