The Everything Guide to Picking Up the Piano: New York Magazine

Dwight Bell, 64, first heard Mozart’s Sonata in A-major, K. 331, 30 years ago in an episode of The Twilight Zone in which the dolls in a dollhouse come to life. He eventually wanted to play it — a desire that only intensified after he heard Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha’s version on the radio. “It sounded easy to play. Little did I know,” he says.

When the pandemic began, Bell found himself with more time on his hands and began looking for a teacher who could give him lessons over Zoom. Since June, he has been meeting virtually with Arielle Levioff, an instructor at the 92nd Street Y School of Music. And with work — he practices two and a half hours a day — he has gotten surprisingly good: He now sails through the left-handed pyrotechnics of Handel’s Sarabande and Variations, sounding like a moody harpsichordist in a vampire movie….