João Carlos Martins: The Maestro Finds New Hope
"With these bionic gloves, I am able to touch the piano with my ten fingers. I don't have dexterity, but what is important is delivering emotion to the audience."
🎧 23 min | Episode 16 | Jun 20, 2024
João Carlos Martins
The Maestro Finds New Hope
Renowned Brazilian pianist and conductor João Carlos Martins is as famed for his musical brilliance as he is for the trials that have defined his journey.
A child prodigy, João Carlos shot to international fame early. "His technique sends fireworks in all directions", wrote a New York Times critic of his debut at Carnegie Hall when he was 21 years old.
Soon after that, João Carlos was losing the use of his hands due to focal dystonia, a neurological condition that causes involuntary muscle contractions. He persisted, he says, by “tricking his brain” to perform with the world’s leading orchestras and record Bach’s complete works for keyboard. However, an accident, dozens of surgeries, and a brutal mugging no longer allowed him to play piano professionally.
At age 63, João Carlos reinvented himself as a conductor. Just when it seemed his story had reached its crescendo, an extraordinary thing happened. In 2020, thanks to a pair of “bionic gloves," the 79-year-old musician gingerly slid his fingers across the keyboard once again, albeit not with the same fluidity.
One wonders, though: How did his loss of dexterity affect his relationship with music? And now that he is playing with his 10 fingers despite his limitations, has his connection with the piano remained the same?
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Transcript
(Edited slightly for clarity)
Melissa Ceria: João Carlos Martins, welcome.
João Carlos Martins: Thank you very much, Melissa. I am very happy to be here. And what can I say? After 29 surgeries, I would say that I am a survivor.
Melissa Ceria: Well, what a life João Carlos. I know that you're planning your next chapter, and we're going to talk about that. You were recognized as a musical prodigy at a very young age. Did you feel as though you were destined to express yourself through music?
João Carlos Martins: The first time I touched a piano, I was seven years old. And if you ask me, “do you remember how did you start to study?” I tell you, “I don't remember.” The only thing I can say is that after 15 days, I was playing the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata. And after one month, I was playing 23 pieces of the Anna Magdalena Notebook by Johann Sebastian Bach. So, at the age of 10, my father recalled this 10-year-old boy playing Liszt, Chopin, playing anything. And I believe in spiritualism. My mother was a medium spiritualist and she used to receive the spirit of Verdi before my performances.
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Melissa Ceria [00:03:00] Your mother was a medium, you say? I have to ask you. Did she feel that you were destined to become a great musician?
João Carlos Martins [00:03:08] My father and my mother thought that I could be a great musician. I didn't know because I was a young boy. But when I was 18 years old and I went to the Pablo Casal Festival and I gave my first recital in Washington, then I realized that I could play with my own interpretation, because I think a musician needs to mix his individuality with the personality of the composer. And I used to play with my own individuality, and I thought that I had a message at that time.
Melissa Ceria [00:03:52] What was the message that you felt that you had?
João Carlos Martins [00:03:56] I felt, for example, I played almost every single work Bach wrote for keyboard, and I thought that Bach, it was a kind of synthesis of everything in music that happened before him, and he predicted everything that we have till now in music. And in my opinion, Bach was of course a baroque composer, but at the same time he was a romantic composer also, because with two wives, because his first wife died, he had twenty children. My goodness. So he was a romantic guy. And at the same time, he was a man from the church also. I like to play Bach as I am talking to you now. For example, I think when I play Bach that he is in my living room, I am talking to him and I am telling him, “what do you think about my own interpretation” and how can I mix my interpretation with his personality.
Melissa Ceria [00:05:05] So you have this closeness with him. You rise to fame very quickly, João Carlos, at 21 you're playing Carnegie Hall. What was that evening like for you?
João Carlos Martins [00:05:17] Before I started the concert, the conductor Howard Mitchell, he told me “you don't know so many things about music.” I said, “my goodness, how can I hear that before I enter the stage of Carnegie Hall.” But then he told me, “I don't know so many things about music too.” And then he showed me the musicians of the orchestra, and they told me they don't know so many things about music, too. But then he opened a little bit the window and showed me the audience. It was a full audience at Carnegie Hall, and told me, “but they know much less than us, so you can go ahead.” And I felt very comfortable with these words. And then I think that I, well I assumed, as I entered the stage, I said that “it's my night” and it was my night.
Melissa Ceria [00:06:10] How beautiful. It's an interesting time in your life, João Carlos, because on the one hand, you are being recognized for these fireworks of performances, people acknowledge your immense talent, and yet, at the same time, you're also starting to experience some of the finger spasms from focal dystonia. Do you remember the moment when you knew that this was going to redirect your life?
João Carlos Martins [00:06:40] Let me tell you. I have a rare disease. It started when I was eight years old because I couldn't hold a card, for example, but I could play the piano. When I was 15 years old, for the first time, I realized at the end of a concert, that my fifth and fourth finger tried to curve, but I didn't pay attention. When I was 23 years old, I was playing around the world and I went to a doctor to see if I had some disease. They told me it's a psychological problem. I knew it was not a psychological problem. What did I do? Let me tell you. At 7:00 in the morning at my apartment in New York I could play anything. After two hours, I started to feel some strange movements on my right and then on my left hand also. So, I told my manager, Jay Hoffman, I will arrive 6 or 7 or eight hours before the concert. I need a couch or my dressing room. I will sleep till 15 minutes before the concert. So wake me up and I will play as I used to play at my apartment at 7:00 in the morning, and the audience didn't realize that I had a problem. Sometimes at the end of the concert, I started to feel some problems, but I was able, with concentration, to manage to finish the concert. And if I couldn't sleep I would just cancel the concert. Sometimes I cancel a concert two hours before because I think the audience needs perfectionism with emotion. If I was not able to deliver emotion with perfectionism, I would rather not give a concert.
Melissa Ceria [00:08:45] But so were you hiding this condition? Was it just your manager who knew?
João Carlos Martins [00:08:50] Yes. But then I had an accident playing soccer at Central Park. This accident affected my own nerve on my right hand. And I had a surgery with one of the best neurosurgeons at the New York University Hospital. And with physiotherapy for one year I was able to play again. So the real story was the focal dystonia for musicians. But the real story for the newspaper, for the audience, was the accident at Central Park. But my manager asked me, I will cancel your next tour. From now on, the real story is the Central Park accident. But I knew my fifth and fourth finger kept curling at the end of every concert.
Melissa Ceria [00:09:43] That's interesting. So you did experience this moment of despair that you've talked about very openly when you were 27. How long did it take for you to adapt to this new reality?
João Carlos Martins [00:09:56] Well, I have to tell you, I changed the position of my hands hundreds of times. Every week I tried a new way. I changed the position of my bench. Every week I was trying something. I was tweaking my brain, every month, every week, every day. Because focal dystonia for musicians was considered a rare disease only in 1982 by the World Health Organization. And this is why the doctors used to say it's a psychological problem. The same problem that, in my opinion, the greatest American pianist, Leon Fleisher,—and I am a member of the board of the Leon Fleisher Foundation—had the same kind of problem I had. And we went to the same doctors several times. He tried to help me. I tried to help him in Baltimore, but they realized that I had the disease only in 2011. So can you imagine, my hands were never comfortable and I lived with pain my whole life. This is why I had 29 surgeries, most of them at my hands. And, if you look at my arm, it's full of surgeries everywhere. Because when the pain was unbearable, I needed surgery to cut a small section of some of my nerves. So you cannot imagine, I played I think 2000 times, recitals, concerts with orchestras. Every time I was afraid to enter the stage. I was always afraid. I didn't know if I would be able to give you the concert. But now we have the reason why I believe in Spiritualism. Something happened there, and then I performed much better than I thought I could do, you know. And, I said, I have a mission in my life. I have to deliver emotion to this audience.
Melissa Ceria [00:12:08] You have said, João Carlos, that Bach helped you a lot. What was it in his music that helped you find strength?
João Carlos Martins [00:12:19] Because with Bach I thought that I could express myself. I couldn’t express myself playing Chopin, for example.
Melissa Ceria [00:12:29] Why not?
João Carlos Martins [00:12:30] I don't know, but I know that I could express myself by playing Johann Sebastian Bach. And I always used to say, you can make a career not playing everything. You can make a career playing everything that you can do well. I played the Chopin concerto. I played the Brahms concerto. I liked, the audience liked it. But after the concert, I used to tell myself, yes, I did my job, but I never knew if I did the right job.
Melissa Ceria [00:13:02] I'm wondering how your creativity evolved or changed in response to your physical limitations.
João Carlos Martins [00:13:11] This is a very important question. The most important thing in my life, it's this toward mental health. When I was 29 years old, I tried to commit to suicide. I tried to kill myself. But then I was in my bathtub, I said, that's it. But then the telephone rang and it rang, it rang and rang. And then I went to my bedroom to answer the telephone. And then it was my teacher from São Paulo. After this call, I told myself, I will love life till the last day of my life. With so many adversities, I have a mission in my life to inspire people with problems much smaller than my problem. When the doctors told me when I was 62 years old that I could never play professionally again, one week later, I took my first lesson to try to be a conductor.
Melissa Ceria [00:14:17] Where do you find the energy or the inspiration to keep moving forward and looking for solutions when you come across a difficulty?
João Carlos Martins [00:14:30] I told myself, I am a musician. I will try to be a conductor. Each musician will be a key of my keyboard. And then when I started to conduct, can you imagine after the concert, I lost 3 or 4 pounds. Till last year, I conducted almost 2000 concerts. Everything by heart. And you can imagine what kind of concentration I had when I conducted my own orchestra. I went 7 or 8 times to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and six months after the first lesson, I was conducting Paris and Brussels, and I told myself when I knew that I couldn't play piano professionally again, I am a musician. I am a musician. I will be a conductor from now on.
Melissa Ceria [00:15:28] Your wife, Carmen, observed a change in you. She said that you went from being hunched over a keyboard to standing upright and open. How did that shift influence your perspective as a musician?
João Carlos Martins [00:15:45] Yes. My wife, she knows me better than anybody, and she can judge me better than anybody. So when she told me that, she realized that finally I opened my arms, I became another person. Because at the same time, I understood what the word social responsibility means and what sustainability means also. Today I had a thousand children, most of them, under privileged people, and I am bringing them to this fantastic world of classical music. This is why I say that I started my career as a pianist when I was eight years old, I started my career as a conductor when I was 63 years old, and next year I will give my farewell concert at Carnegie Hall. And in 2025, on May 9th, I hope to see you there. I will give my farewell concert. But at the age of 85, I will start my life as a musical educator, with so many things I’ve learned during these last 20 years with teenagers because the word social responsibility means a lot for me. So I will start a new career.
Melissa Ceria [00:17:08] João Carlos, what do you wish to communicate to young people today? What is important to you?
João Carlos Martins [00:17:16] I tell them that science can cure the body. But the artist, the music can cure the soul. You can do a lot of things if you can be a member of this world club of artists. It can be a musician, painter, an actor, an actress. But if we live in a world where the art can command your life and you can command your expression, you can do things that other people don't have this kind of opportunity.
Melissa Ceria [00:17:59] João Carlos, I want to also ask you, as you prepare to perform your final concert at Carnegie Hall, you will be doing it with your bionic gloves. You have said that you can now play with your ten fingers. Maybe not with the same dexterity as before, but what has technology done for you as an artist?
João Carlos Martins [00:18:18] When I started my life as a conductor at the end of a concert, I always would play a small piece with three fingers. But after 22 years with these bionic gloves I was able to touch the piano with my ten fingers. I don't have dexterity, but what is important? Always trying to deliver emotion to the audience.
Melissa Ceria [00:18:42] Has your relationship with the piano changed since you took a break? You became a conductor. What new emotion do you bring today when you play?
João Carlos Martins [00:18:55] Sometimes when I am dreaming, when I wake up, I was giving a concert at Carnegie Hall you know, and then I realized that I cannot play professionally anymore. Of course, it's a terrible sensation. And when sometimes I wake up, I tell myself I would like to play Chopin Études and I would like to play Brahms Concerto. I would like to play the Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach. And I know that I cannot do this anymore. So then I go back to the most important two words in my life: mental health. You have to realize that you cannot play, but, I thank God every day that I am able to come back even to conduct, I need the bionic gloves because it keeps my hands straight. You know, if I start Beethoven's Fifth here. Well, bah bah bah bah bah bah bah bah. And then I realized that I needed the bionic gloves even to conduct. I will be 84 on June 25th. But every single day, at the end of the day, I say, my goodness, it's so important to be a musician. It's so important to make music. It is so important to live with artists. So thank God.
Melissa Ceria [00:20:22] And do you bring with your experience a new level of emotion to your piano playing?
João Carlos Martins [00:20:31] Yes, this is my phrase: you have to run after your dream. When you don't expect, the dream will start to run after you and this is what’s happening in my life. I runned all my life after my dream. Now the dreams are running after me. And so I tell you, I feel an experience that very few people can feel. I am somebody, I cry several times. But, you can be sure that on May 9th, 2005, I will conduct all the first half. And after the second half I will play the piano, not as I used to play before, but I will be able to play piano again at Carnegie. It will be my 30th appearance in New York. This is why the manager decided that every ticket will be $30 at Carnegie to celebrate my 30th appearance in New York, you know.
Melissa Ceria [00:21:39] Well, I will be there.
João Carlos Martins [00:21:41] You are my guest.
Melissa Ceria [00:21:42] No. $30. I will contribute.
João Carlos Martins [00:21:45] Oh, no. No, no. Come on. You are my guest.
Melissa Ceria [00:21:48] It'll be beautiful. I look forward to it. My closing question to you is, what do you look forward to the most about that performance?
João Carlos Martins [00:22:00] I think it will be historical for myself. I don't know if it will be historical for the city of New York, but for myself, it will be a historical performance. And, you can be sure that I will do my job with all my heart and my brain also.
Melissa Ceria [00:22:27] João Carlos, thank you so much for your time. It was such a pleasure to speak with you.
João Carlos Martins [00:22:32] It was my pleasure and the only thing I can say is that the questions were much better than the answers.
Melissa Ceria [00:22:41] That's not true. But thank you for your generous words, and I look forward to hearing you play very soon.
João Carlos Martins [00:22:50] I hope so, and when you have some time, every week you can see me playing on my Instagram, playing some Bach the way I used to play and the way I play now. So I keep showing you the importance of music in my life, and I try to inspire other people. So thank you very much for this interview.
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