THE IMPROVISER

Pianist Garreth Llewelyn has a hair-trigger imagination. It helps him lead his audiences into amazing realms. His mesmerizing improvisations engage listeners' senses in incredible ways.

Garreth is the best-known pianist in the world, but he's struggling to balance his music with his complicated personal life. His romantic relationships are becoming difficult. His authoritarian father and his envious brother are making it hard to have close family ties.

A noted writer, following Garreth from concert to concert, is preparing the definitive biography. But his questions stir up things Garreth hasn't wanted to face. Is his music some form of escape? Is he hypnotizing his listeners?

Garreth has other questions for himself: Why is he haunted by a menacing image from his childhood? Why do ancient stone cairns inhabit his thoughts? What is his music, with its increasing synesthesia, trying to tell him?

And, most important: what can he do to achieve more with his life?

The Improviser takes you around the world from Machu Picchu to northern Manitoba, from Istanbul to Wales, from the Sistine Chapel to the White House. And it takes you into the imagination of a musical genius, into a captivating place where illusion and reality intertwine.