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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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THE ENCORE

Charity Tillemann-Dick

A Memory in Three Acts

The remarkable true story of acclaimed opera singer Charity Tillemann-Dick, who received not one but two double lung transplants and went from struggling to draw a single breath to singing at the most prestigious venues in the world.
Charity Tillemann-Dick was a vivacious young American soprano studying at the celebrated Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest when she received devastating news: her lungs were failing, her heart was three and a half sizes too big, and she would die within five years. Inexplicably, despite her fatal pulmonary condition, she could still sing. Medical experts advised Charity to abandon her musical dreams, but if her time was running out, she wanted to spend it doing what she loved.

In just three years, she endured two double lung transplants. Teetering between life and death, she slowly learned to breathe, walk, talk, eat, and sing again. With new lungs and fierce determination, she eventually fell in love, rebuilt her career, and reclaimed her life. Over a decade after her diagnosis, she has a chart-topping album, performs around the globe, and is a leading voice for organ donation.

Weaving Charity's extraordinary tale of triumph with those of opera's greatest heroines, The Encore illuminates the indomitable human spirit. It's the story of confronting devastating challenges with love: the intimate love of a mother for her daughter, a man for a woman, a doctor for her craft, and a singer for her music. Ultimately, grace from God and strangers enabled the work of love to save one young woman's breath and allowed her to reclaim her life.

Charity Tillemann-Dick is a soprano and top-selling Billboard classical artist. She studied music at the Peabody Institute at John Hopkins University and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary, where she was a Fulbright scholar. Raised in Denver, Colorado with eleven brothers and sisters, she currently resides with her husband in Washington, DC.
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Book

Published 2017-10-03 by Atria

Book

Published 2017-10-03 by Atria

Comments

Like many memoirs of illness and recovery, Tillemann-Dick's story occasionally becomes a blur of tests and hospitals, doctors and nurses, medical setbacks and triumphs. But her clear-eyed, fresh voice--honest almost to a fault--keeps the narrative from becoming saccharine or too repetitive. Her faith runs throughout like a leitmotif from one of her beloved operas, adding depth and dimension to an already powerful story. Read more...

A Singer's Inspiring Joie de Vivre - After undergoing two double-lung transplants, coloratura soprano Charity Tillemann-Dick continues to sing. Read more...

Inspiring...a moving memoir

Following Megyn Kelly, Kathie Lee Gifford plugged the book and added to her list of "Favorite Thing" of the week on this morning's Kathie Lee & Hoda. Read more...

In this heartrending, passionate, and surprisingly humorous account of the conjunction between art and death, Charity Tillemann-Dick gives us the performance of a lifetime.

An uplifting story of overcoming significant odds to fulfill a dream.

As a testament to the power of faith, love, prayer, and music, this self-portrait of courage and grace under extreme pressure will engage and inspire.

This opera singer's lungs were failing, but she refused to stop singing. Read more...

Amy Tan picked THE ENCORE as one of her favorite reads of 2017 in Omnivoracious! Read more...

Charity Tillemann-Dick was interviewed on Megyn Kelly TODAY Read more...