Sao Paulo (AFP)

An illness and several accidents forced the famous Brazilian pianist Joao Carlos Martins to abandon the piano in 2019. But thanks to bionic gloves, the musician's fingers dance again on the keyboard.

In June, the pianist will celebrate his 80th birthday and three months later, he will give a concert at Carnegie Hall for the 60th anniversary of his first performance in the prestigious New York hall.

"It shows millions of 80-year-olds that they can have goals and objectives," says this renowned Bach interpreter. The Brazilian however returns from afar.

At 18, he was diagnosed with focal dystonia, a disease that causes involuntary muscle spasms and particularly affects his hands.

Later, he injured his elbow during a football match. A violent assault on the head in Bulgaria also leaves him with after-effects.

Twenty years ago, the disease finally forced him to play only with his left hand, then gradually to use only his thumbs.

With no other choice, he then turned to the direction of the orchestra, before saying goodbye to the stage in February 2019.

His salvation then comes from an inventor, Ubirata Costa, who comes to see him one day in his dressing room with a pair of technological gloves and the hope of giving him a little joy.

"The gloves weren't working, but I didn't want to be rude, I invited him to lunch," says Joao Carlos Martins.

From there, Ubirata Costa begins to work on new prototypes of these gloves which combine neoprene with 3D printed parts.

"I have already lost count of how much I have made," says the designer.

Joao Carlos Martins tells how, before the "appearance of this madman with his gloves on", his daily life boiled down to "waking up at 5:30 am", checking that his name was not in the obituaries of the newspapers and memorizing scores - he knows 15,000 by heart - because illness prevents him from turning the pages.

Thanks to the paired gloves and a robot from Europe responsible for turning the pages of the scores, Joao Carlos Martins can once again hope to devote himself to his art.

"Now I wake up listening to music (...) and I go to bed listening to work," says Carmen Martins, the musician's wife.

The latter, who has not finished with his dreams, now wishes to transmit his passion by forming an orchestra with children from disadvantaged neighborhoods.

© 2020 AFP