The Road to Shmeggegee

The Road to Shmeggegee is a hilarious memoir of the trails and tribulations of the life of composer/conductor/innovator/explorer Joel Spiegelman. Packed with humor, it combines the ironies, twists and turns of living in a complex world marked by turbulent relationships, successes, failures, and an utterly fascinating life. It keeps alive the comic tradition of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen.

The Road to Shmeggegee is a hilarious memoir of the trails and tribulations of the world of composer/conductor/innovator/explorer Joel Spiegelman. Packed with humor, it combines the ironies, twists and turns of living in a complex world marked by turbulent relationships, successes, failures, and a fascinating life. It keeps alive the comic tradition of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen. Spiegelman's Russian-Jewish-American heritage is evident in every sentence whether he is conducting a symphony orchestra in Moscow, moonlighting as a maitre d’hôtel in New York, performing for Mikhail Gorbachev, brokering the purchase a TV network in Russia for Sweden, or confronting the Russian Mafia in Cairo in a deal set up by the great, great, great granddaughter of the Pharaoh.. You will laugh your way through every page of this incredible story that could only happen to someone travelling on The Road to Shmeggegee. What is a Shmeggegee anyhow? Read this book and you will soon find out.

Joel Spiegelman is an internationally renowned composer, conductor, pianist, harpsichordist and teacher. His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Moscow Conservatory, and the Kremlin. He has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. In 1965 he was the first American musician to travel to the Russia for an extended period where he collected unknown avant-garde Soviet music which he presented at concerts throughout the United States. The following year, he introduced his collection to composer Igor Stravinsky, establishing a friendship lasting until the end of Stravinsky's life. In 2002, Spiegelman established Metro Philharmonic, in Moscow, where he performed a concert in memory of Raisa Gorbachev at the request of Mikhail Gorbachev. Joel Spiegelman currently directs musical festivals in Northwest Greenland and in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and has been on the faculty at Brandeis University, Sarah Lawrence College, and the University of California, La Jolla (Regents Professor).