Still on the Beat

Mann, on the other hand, thanks modern medicine and healthy practicing for the longevity of his career. He says he may be the only professional violinist still performing after undergoing two rotator-cuff surgeries. The great Jascha Heifetz ended his concert career when tendon weakness in his right arm prevented him from bowing properly. These days, medical specialists have myriad techniques for keeping performers in playing shape even as their bodies age and muscles weaken. Musicians with dystonia, for example, who often suffer from muscle spasms, now receive experimental new movement and drug therapies.

Violin virtuoso Louise Behrend, 87, maintains a studio for 30 students, mentoring kids more than 80 years her junior. "What you don't use, you lose," she says, explaining why her hands are nearly always hovering over her violin's fingerboard. "Playing violin is one of the few activities that use your entire being--your mind, body and emotions," she notes.

"People say, 'You're crazy. You should slow down,'" Behrend remarks. "But why retire? What I love more than anything is teaching and playing the violin." Legendary lyric bass Daniel Ferro, 82, concurs. "I couldn't think of retiring," says Ferro, who still has a booming voice. "I would be bored to tears. I'll probably die at the keyboard."

As for Sandor, he's nearing the achievement of the legendary Mieczyslaw Horszowski, who continued to perform at the piano after his 100th birthday. Horszowski's mother had studied with a pupil of Frederic Chopin, and she gave her son his first lessons in 1895, when he was 3. In Horszowski's 98th year of musicmaking, people marveled at his longevity and were even more impressed by his artistry. Sandor explains Horszowski's endurance with the confidence of an insider. "I tell people that the first 90 years are hard," he says. "After that, it's easy."