On a quiet cul-du-sac in Woodstock, there lives a man who sits at his piano every day and practices. Or he wakes up eager to compose. He admits, “When I’m writing, I get up early in the morning.” His name is Daniel Abrams—twice the recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship, performer on some of the world’s great stages, onetime professor and conductor at Goucher College and The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and locally, the founder of Woodstock Guild’s Candlelight Series at the Byrdcliffe Barn. Abrams went from high school in Cleveland straight to Julliard in New York City to study composition and conducting. Later, he studied under the famous Isabelle Vengerova, the Russian born founder of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Vengerova’s notoriously tyrannical style of training pianists had not wavered when Abrams met up with her at Mannes College of Music towards the end of her career and life.

Abrams has stories to tell of her harsh techniques—like the time she had him make a voodoo doll and stick pins in it, and then told him, “It’s too bad your accident wasn’t fatal,” referring to the childhood calamity that took one of his legs. Perhaps that invective was less threatening than having studio furniture hurled at him, as it is rumored she’d done to other students. But Abrams’ physical handicap was multiplied by severe vision problems, too. It’s hard to imagine a sensitive, young person thriving in such an educational atmosphere. I asked how he could possibly have learned under her sometimes demeaning tutelage, and might he not have been better nurtured by someone else? He says, “I would have liked it better. But she gave me the finest set of tools I could buy. A performer has to have the technique, the ‘chops’ so to speak. If I said, ‘This is what I feel about the interpretation [of a piece of music],’ she’d say, ‘You’re the student. It’s not up to you to interpret. It’s up to you to listen to what I tell you what to do. I don’t wanna hear from your ideas!’” Vengerova was an equal opportunity tyrant. Among her more famous students is Leonard Bernstein, who was also regularly chastised. She told Abrams, “Don’t get any ideas! Leonard can’t get away with this either!” He maintains, under no terms of endearment, that Vengerova could give you the ability to do what you wanted with your interpretation, your knowledge. You could start out on a career without physical limitations. Still, he threw his piano book into the Hudson River when he completed his studies with her.

And then he went on, eventually, to compose works that are all interpretation. “All the music in the series Opera for Piano was written because I love opera, and I wanted to play some of this wonderful music on the piano. It’s written in the styles of the various composers to preserve the passions and styles of the operas, perhaps as if the music had been written for the piano, but not as virtuoso pieces,” explains Abrams. He calls them his fantasy variations, appropriate to a musician who declares he was born in the wrong century. “Composing is as important to me as performing. It’s not based on audience reaction. Creating is its own thing; [a composition] can be perfected, and it doesn’t require the exposing of one’s technique to the public.”

In fact, though Abrams has played the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, in addition to performing in countless smaller venues worldwide over the years, he has not taken the stage recently. He concedes if you’re not in the public’s immediate view, it’s “out of sight, out of mind.” But his dedication to writing, coupled with a sideline passion for boats—he captained his own boat for the four years he and wife Sonia Sudak lived on the water, and they both enjoy cruising on the big ships—these kept him out of the limelight for nearly two decades. Except for the Atlantic crossing they paid for by Abrams writing a musical and producing it with the ship’s resident theatre company at the end of a hundred-and-four-day voyage, and the in house benefit concert he played for the local Jewish community of Ulster County. And the many impromptu shows he did while cruising down the Eastern Seaboard to the Caribbean and back. It is with great anticipation, then that Abrams will return to his alma mater, the Mannes College of Music in New York City, for an evening of music that celebrates his deep regard for operatic works, especially those of Richard Wagner. Indeed, the featured work will be the American premier of Musical Portraits from Wagner’s “Ring Cycle.” Abrams’ compositions have received enthusiastic responses from performances in Europe this past season, and it is his delight to now share this unique interpretation with American audiences.

Sudak is also known for living her passion. She once told me that she’d always known she’d be married to a famous musician, and was once engaged to another man—but didn’t care for his last name. Meeting Abrams and supporting his career throughout Europe and the Americas was, at the time, her dream-come-true. And then they divorced, and he remarried twice (siring two children) before they met again almost two decades later. For Sudak, who had never pined over her lost love, the reconnection was instant. And Abrams concurs. He likens their relationship to the “Tristan chord”—a musical progression involving the augmented 4th or diminished 5th, never resolvable, yet always pushing towards resolution. They’re living out their own operatic fantasy variation. Sudak’s absolute devotion and belief in her husband’s gift may be rarity in couples these days, yet she quips: “It’s not like the angels are singing all the time.” She has her own creative trajectory in the arts and in yoga and tai chi. “I derive my sense of Self by standing on my head. It’s quite an accomplishment. Try it sometime.” Mind you…a train ride into the City for an evening of masterful piano music might be an easier trick.

Mannes College (a division of the New School for Music since 1989 and now celebrating its 91st year) is a classical music conservatory dedicated to providing a comprehensive, world-class education to aspiring musicians. Abrams’ appearance on Wednesday, October 15 is a part of the college’s esteemed Alumni recital program. Mannes is located at 150 West 85th Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues) in Manhattan. The concert begins at 8:00 pm, and seating begins a half hour before. Admission is free. For further information call the Concert Office at 212 580 0210, ext. 4817, or see www.newschool.edu/Mannes/. For further information about Daniel Abrams see www.daniel-abrams.com.