I must have been ten or eleven years old, when my piano teacher signed me up to play at a recital. A gaggle of piano teachers got together to let their students show off against another. That's what it seemed to me. I was one of the younger ones and the other players were all much better pianists. The whole experience seemed so unnatural. When I told her I hated it, it was like high noon. The stand-off went something like this: “You have to play recitals, otherwise you're not going to improve!” “If you force me to play one of those things again, I'll quit!” And then she signed me up to play the next one…