The young man tucks his violin under his chin and begins to
play. A hush falls over the few spectators in the largely empty
opera house, who turn toward the bare stage. As his lilting
notes float through the room, other people trickle in from the
lobby to listen. The young man sometimes closes his eyes as he
plays, as if lost in the music. If his audience closed their
eyes, too, they would never know the violinist standing before
them has no right hand, only a stunted appendage with tiny stubs
instead of fingers. Which is fitting, because Adrian Anantawan
prefers to be judged for what people hear, not what they see. At
28, Anantawan is one of the world's most accomplished young
violinists. He has performed at the White House, at the
Vancouver Winter Olympics, for Pope John Paul II, for
Christopher Reeve and most recently for the Dalai Lama during a
private recital at MIT. Anantawan played a piece by Bach, and
when he finished, the Tibetan Buddhist leader approached him.
"He put my hands together, and put his