Charleston, SC, Nov. 02, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As a conductor and professor of music, Michael Pratt has written extensively on his concert repertoire, but it was his lifelong desire to connect music with human intimacy that propelled him to try his hand as a novelist. In his debut book, “The Copyists,” he explores how the splendor contained in Mozart’s sensually charged music and the heat of an intimate relationship originate in the same part of the soul. This thesis forms the underlying premise of his novel, and Pratt makes his case with the help of none other than Mozart himself.

In “The Copyists,” protagonist Stefan Radowitz is a classical musician who is experiencing a rough patch in both his personal and professional life. At a particularly low point, he finds himself standing at Mozart’s grave searching for solace and inspiration. To his astonishment, he is transported back in time, to the year of 1785, where he finds his way to Mozart’s door and is given the chance to work as his assistant. While working for the virtuoso, whose charisma, drive, complexity, and darkness gifted the world with his divinely beautiful music, Stefan meets a young widow, herself endowed with astounding musical genius, and falls madly in love. But given his knowledge of the future, he is all too aware of how little time Mozart has left, and he fears his happiness may also come to an untimely end.

Drawing from his own fervor for classical music, Pratt conjures a fantasy that is sure to capture the imagination of any music lover, and in doing so, he seeks to reveal the inextricable link between physical passion and musical expression. “It is my belief that love-inspired physical passion and the act of totally giving oneself over to all the beauties of music—especially Mozart’s—are from the same area of the human soul,” Pratt says.

“The Copyists” is available for purchase on Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

About the Author:

Michael Pratt is a professor of the practice of music and director of the Certificate Program in Music Performance at Princeton University. He has conducted the Princeton University Orchestra and Opera Theater for over four decades and has given symphony and opera performances around the world, performing repertory from five centuries. He is the recipient of the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton and is an Honorary Member of the Royal College of Music in London. The culmination of numerous lifelong passions, “The Copyists” is his debut novel.

Attachment

• The Copyists

Leah Joseph
Palmetto Publishing
publicity@palmettopublishing.com