A musical miracle! Musical maestro João Carlos Martins, 80, breaks down as he plays his piano with bionic gloves - after injuries and disease robbed him of his ability to perform
An internationally renowned pianist who lost dexterity in his hands — and the ability to play his instrument — is finally able to perform again after being fitting with bionic gloves.
Returning to his passion after two decades of limitations was undoubtedly an emotional moment for 80-year-old conductor João Carlos Martins, who was left unable to play following decades of battles with injuries and disease.
But earlier this year, the Brazilian maestro was fitted with a pair of neoprene-covered bionic gloves that help move his fingers, and he has now shared a poignant video of himself crying joyfully as he performs music by Bach.
Miraculous! 80-year-old pianist João Carlos Martins is able to play again after injuries and disease robbed him of his dexterity
Poignant: The Brazilian maestro was fitted with a pair of bionic gloves that help move his fingers, and he has now shared a video of himself crying joyfully as he performs music by Bach
Moving: Clearly overcome with emotion, he appears to be on the verge of tears throughout the performance, which he shared on Instagram
Martins is considered an incredibly skilled pianist, but he started battling health issues back in 1965 after suffering nerve damage in his arm from a soccer injury.
His issues were compounded when he was mugged in Bulgaria, with his assailant hitting him in the head with a metal pipe.
He also battled a degenerative disease, and over the years has undergone 24 surgeries.
By 2000, he mostly retired from performing — he could only play slowly with his thumbs — and has worked as a conductor ever since.
But in late 2019, designer and innovator Ubiratã Bizarro Costa created bionic gloves for Martins. The gloves bump his ' fingers upward after they depress the keys.
While the new gloves were certainly cause for celebration, it took some time for Martins to get used to them.
'I might not recover the speed of the past. I don't know what result I will get. I'm starting over as though I were an eight-year-old learning,' he told the Associated Press.
Setbacks: Martins is considered an incredibly skilled pianist, but he started battling health issues back in 1965 after suffering nerve damage in his arm from a soccer injury
Magical: But in late 2019, designer and innovator Ubiratã Bizarro Costa created bionic gloves for Martins. The gloves bump his ' fingers upward after they depress the keys
Back at it! By 2000, he mostly retired from performing — he could only play slowly with his thumbs — and has worked as a conductor ever since. But now he can play again
But a new video shared on his Instagram account last week shows he is doing quite well.
In the clip, which has been viewed over 139,000 times on the platform and more on Reddit, Martins skillfully plays a Bach number.
Clearly overcome with emotion, he appears to be on the verge of tears throughout the performance.
'After I lost my tools, my hands, and couldn’t play the piano, it was if there was a corpse inside my chest,' he told the AP in January.
'I know there is a long way to go,' he added in an Instagram post. 'Only the future will show if I managed to achieve my goals, but the pleasure of being able to play something with the bionic gloves at home already makes me believe in a Higher Being.'
He wrote on Instagram: 'The pleasure of being able to play something with the bionic gloves at home already makes me believe in a Higher Being'
'I will keep pushing until that happens,' he said. 'I won't give up'
The gloves took some time to make, and the designer went thought several models that didn't work.
He and Martins went on to collaborate and spent months testing prototypes before landing on the final version this past December. The gloves cost only about 500 Brazilians reals (about $125) to build.
The pianist said that of the 100+ gadgets he has received for his hands over the past 50 years, none have worked nearly as well as these gloves, which he can even 'tune' to accommodate different types of playing.
Back in January, he admitted that he would find himself occasionally frustrated that his skill wasn't coming back as quickly as he'd like, so he needed to keep praciticing.
'Sometimes I try to play a speedy one and get depressed because it just doesn't happen yet,' he said.
He had also hoped to play at New York’s Carnegie Hall this October, when he was scheduled to conduct a concert at the historic venue — but naturally, live concerts in New York have been canceled for the foreseeable future due to the pandemic.
'I will keep pushing until that happens,' he said. 'I won't give up.'
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