The Changing of Keys

With his father dead, a gifted, fourteen-year-old pianist finds himself sent away from his Caribbean home against his will, to study classical music in the U.S. with a family friend he's never met. His first angry, frightened step away from the controlling mother he's never been able to reach becomes a sharp break with her expectations: he leaps into the dramatic and cutthroat world of opera.

In this high-stakes milieu, his fierce desire to be a star fires both his brilliance and the dark distrust of women and of love that is the legacy of his childhood, a legacy that threatens his career, his impulsive marriage, and the young daughter he never wanted.

The Changing of Keys by Carolyn Jack explores the complex interplay of ambition, familial expectation, and personal demons in the world of classical music and opera.