![]() SHANKAR: So over Thanksgiving break of the final year of my postdoc, I was visiting my undergraduate adviser from college. But here again came another unexpected turn. A promising career in academia lay ahead of her. VEDANTAM: She started to study cognitive science, went on to get her Ph.D. SHANKAR: It really wet my appetite for learning more about the mind and for exploring in more depth kind of the brilliance of the brain. VEDANTAM: Maya started reading, and the more she read, the more excited she became. It was called "The Language Instinct" by Steven Pinker. And just by luck, I was helping my parents clean their basement in Cheshire, Conn., and I stumbled upon an old course book of my sister's. SHANKAR: This was the summer before college. VEDANTAM: Back home for the summer in Connecticut, she started to ask herself, would she ever find anything that could make her as happy as the violin? You know, I was first and foremost a violinist. SHANKAR: I was really devastated to lose something that I was completely in love with and so passionate about and that had really constituted such a large part of my life and my identity. Just like that, Maya's dream to become a concert violinist was over. Doctors finally told her she had to stop playing completely. SHANKAR: I overstretched the tendon, and it didn't really heal as expected. SHANKAR: And I simply overstretched my finger on one note, and I felt like kind of a popping. SHANKAR: I was playing a passage from a very challenging Paganini Caprice. ![]() VEDANTAM: One day when Maya was 15, she was practicing at Itzhak Perlman's Shelter Island campus at the eastern edge of Long Island. I never felt more comfortable than when I was performing. SHANKAR: I really wanted to be a violinist. Soon she was taking classes at Juilliard. VEDANTAM: Maya played for the other student's music teacher, and she got accepted into a summer program. SHANKAR: We happened to run into a student in the elevator, and my mom talked to that family and said, would you mind if we just had about five or 10 minutes at the end of your lesson where Maya could play for your teacher? And they were really gracious, and they said, sure, no problem. ![]() So one day when they were in New York, they stopped by Juilliard, the famous performing arts school - just walked in, no appointment. VEDANTAM: Her mother wanted to find a teacher who could take her to the next level. The music you're hearing in this piece is Maya performing at age 12. I just loved the feeling of playing the violin. MAYA SHANKAR: I was immediately taken kind of by the tactile sensation of the instrument. ![]() SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: Maya Shankar remembers exactly how she felt when her mom first put a violin in her hands. NPR's social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam brings us the story of one woman who's had to reinvent herself again and again. Life often requires improvisation, especially when things don't go according to plan. ![]()
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