Saul Robert Lipshutz was a celebrated violin prodigy in the 1950s and ’60s, enrolled in the elite studio of Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School. The rigorous instructional regime “turned me into a trained monkey,” he recalls.
Following a nervous breakdown in his late teens, he realized, “Childhood was lost. Time was lost. Then one day I finally saw myself and I thought: ‘That’s it. There has to be more.’ ” He gave up the violin, renamed himself Saul Chandler, and embarked on a life journey light years away from the concert stage.
Today, he’s a retired actuary who builds and sails boats. The New York Times’ Alex Vadukul profiles the prodigy who escaped the “terror” of a musical gift:
Letter V 