PEOPLE
SAO PAULO — A few days before Christmas, renowned pianist Joao Carlos Martins summoned his friends to a Sao Paulo bar so he could show off the best gift he’d received in years: a new pair of bionic gloves that are letting the 79-year-old play with both hands for the first time in more than two decades.
Considered one of the great interpreters of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, the Brazilian classical pianist and conductor had retired last March after 24 surgeries trying to stop pains from a degenerative disease and a series of accidents. His limitations had forced him to work mostly as a conductor since the early 2000s.
But since the closing days of 2019, friends have been returning to Martins’ downtown penthouse to hear him bring Frederic Chopin, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his favorite Bach back to life at his Petrof piano.
Before the gloves, which were especially developed for him, the pianist could only play songs slowly with his thumbs and, sometimes, his index fingers.
“After I lost my tools, my hands, and couldn’t play the piano, it was if there was a corpse inside my chest,” Martins said.
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SAN DIEGO — The Go-Go’s, the most commercially successful all-woman rock band in recording history, are getting back together for a 2020 summer reunion tour.
The 11-show reunion tour comes four years after The Go-Go’s 2016 farewell tour and two years after the Los Angeles quintet’s members got back together for a 40th anniversary tour in 2018.
It was also in 2018 that “Head Over Heels” debuted as a short-lived Broadway musical. It was based on songs by the Go-Go’s, who in the early 1980s became the first chart-topping, all-female rock band that wrote and performed its own music. The Bangles, who debuted in 1981, came in a close second. A San Diego production of “Head Over Heels” will open May 21 at Diversionary Theatre.
The upcoming reunion tour by The Go-Go’s will follow the new Showtime documentary, “THE GO-GO’S,” which is directed by Allison Wood. It will premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, which opened Thursday in Park City, Utah. No information has been provided yet on a general release date for the film.
Tickets for The Go-Go’s 2020 reunion tour go on sale Friday at ticketmaster.com.
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DETROIT — Dave Matthews Band announced dates for its 2020 North American summer tour.
With the release of 2018’s “Come Tomorrow,” the Dave Matthews Band became the first group in history to have seven consecutive studio albums debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
An online ticket presale for members of the DMB Warehouse Fan Association ends at 3 p.m. Feb. 3 at www.warehouse.davematthewsband.com. Citi card members will have access to purchase presale tickets at 10 a.m. Feb. 18 through 10 p.m. Feb. 20 at www.citientertainment.com.
The group also announced plans to help plant 1 million trees in a collective effort with The Dreaming Tree Wines and DocuSign. For more details, visit plantabillion.org/DMB.
From wire reports
