Maestro's laughter interrupted by start of tense silence (7)
I believe the answer is:
hotshot
'maestro's' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'laughter interrupted by start of tense silence' is the wordplay.
'laughter' becomes 'hoot' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'interrupted by' is an insertion indicator.
'start of' indicates taking the first letters.
'silence' becomes 'sh' ('sh' is said to tell someone to be silent).
The initial letter of 'tense' is 't'.
't'+'sh'='tsh'
'hoot' enclosing 'tsh' is 'HOTSHOT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hotshot that I've seen before include "ace" , "Expert" , "Important person" , "Top player" , "successful type?" .)