January 16, 1948. "I was raised in Bowling Green, Kentucky. My father taught music history and theory at Western Kentucky University there. We lived in a log cabin on the grounds of the university museum. The cabin was rented out to faculty members for fifty dollars a month. It had a rail fence, a garden, a man-made pond; there was a creek, an open field, and woods. The university had planted samples of every kind of tree, bush, and flower that grew in Kentucky. I was an only child, somewhat lonely, and I grew up in the wilds of this extremely secluded, extremely beautiful fantasy land.

"My father is a violinist, and I heard classical music constantly--wall-to-wall string quartets. I learned violin, piano, and guitar. My mother worked in a bookstore. My parents were very encouraging about creative endeavors. We had no TV until I was twelve, and there were...