About the Book

"...a transnational musical exploration by an unsettled self and soul, from the newest enfant terrible to arrive on our music scene." -Outsmart Magazine.

"..a harrowing, moving, glowing book... 88x50 is one of the finest memoirs by any performing artist, and a powerful testament to the great American project of self-invention and mastery. Adam Tendler is an astonishing pianist and a brilliant writer, altogether in a class of his own."-Rick Whitaker, author of An Honest Ghost and Assuming the Position: A Memoir of Hustling

A music school misfit escapes to the highway with a ramshackle recital tour called America 88x50-eighty-eight piano keys by fifty states-winging it from the front seat of his Hyundai and bringing free performances of seldom-heard, modern American music to some of the country's most isolated corners. It's an all-American road trip with a modern music twist, but behind the public façade is a musical Johnny Appleseed desperate to find himself and spiraling into a secret life that could lead just as easily from ultimate self-acceptance to ultimate self-destruction.

In this pedal-to-the-metal literary debut, complete with a free online companion offering nearly 200 multimedia features, Adam Tendler takes readers for an unforgettable ride into the classical music odyssey that beat the odds, shaped an artist, and shook this nation one piano at a time.

Adam Tendler thrives on challenge. A virtuoso pianist attracted to the most demanding scores, he performs them from memory. A freelance artist whose fearlessness and nerve has seen him through highwire performances (without a net) at Carnegie Hall, he has shown up in rinky-dink churches from Alabama to Alaska to play modernist American music for 50 small handfuls of ruffians and little old ladies who must have thought they were hearing something like the music of the end of the world as he made his way, usually on a catastrophic, ill-tuned piano, through a program that would challenge even big-city sophisticates and Europeans. Meanwhile he burst out of the closet and transformed himself from music student to world-class artist-and wrote a harrowing, moving, glowing book about it. "88x50" is one of the finest memoirs by any performing artist, and a powerful testament to the great American project of self-invention and mastery. Adam Tendler is an astonishing pianist and a brilliant writer, altogether in a class of his own.--Rick Whitaker, author of An Honest Ghost and Assuming the Position: A Memoir of Hustling
About the Author: "An exuberantly expressive pianist" who "vividly displayed his enthusiasm for every phrase" (Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times), a "maverick pianist" (The New Yorker), a "modern-music evangelist" (Time Out New York) who "has managed to get behind and underneath the notes... living inside the music and making poetic sense of it all. If they gave medals for musical bravery, dexterity and perseverance, Adam Tendler would earn them all." (Tim Smith, Baltimore Sun) Nominated for the 2012 American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Award, and a finalist for the 2013 Amerian Prize, Adam Tendler is quickly emerging as one of the country's most prolific and exciting pianists, building an international reputation through unique programming and a grassroots approach to classical music making, working one-on-one with presenters to cut costs and increase access. He first made national headlines with America 88x50, a completely independent recital tour organized from the front seat of his Hyundai that brought free concerts of modern American music to underserved communities in all fifty states. Tendler has gone on to perform in some of classical music's most distinguished halls and series, and has directed modern music initiatives across the country, serving as an announcer and new music liaison for NPR and Pacifica stations nationwide, direct classical music initiatives across the country, and serve as an announcer and contemporary music liaison for NPR and Pacifica stations nationwide. He is also the founding director of a nightly jazz series at Soho House New York. Since 2007, Tendler has toured with a memorized performance of John Cage's complete Sonatas and Interludes, including a Symphony Space performance for the Cage100 Festival, listed by New York Magazine as one of the Top 10 Classical Music Events of 2012. An outspoken GLBTQ advocate, he was recently keynote speaker at a Human Rights Campaign event in Boston, and performs regularly for clients at New York's Gay Men's Health Crisis Center. He lives and teaches in New York City, and maintains the blog, The Dissonant States. He is currently developing an album on the Albany label of piano music by Robert Palmer. This is his first book.