Dancing Hands How Teresa Carreno Played the Piano for President Lincoln

When Teresa was a little girl in Venezuela, Mama sang lullabies while Papa showed Teresita how to let her happy hand dance across all the beautiful dark and light keys of a piano.

At first, making music seemed magical, but Teresa soon learned that playing a piano could be hard work. Sometimes she had to struggle to make the stubborn music behave as she practiced gentle songs that sounded like colorful birds singing in the dark and light branches of a shade-dappled mango tree . . . and powerful songs that roared like prowling jaguars, beside towering waterfalls in a mysterious green jungle.

If Teresa felt sad, music cheered her, and when she was happy, the piano helped her share bursts of joy. By the time she was six, she could write her own songs, and at seven she performed in the peaceful chapel of a magnificent cathedral, playing hymns that shimmered like hummingbirds.