Brazilian pianist João Carlos Martins retired from playing piano in March 2019 after 24 unsuccessful surgeries to repair his hands from both degenerative disease and a series of accidents. Martins has worked as a conductor for most of this millennium, but had previously made his name as what the Chicago Tribune calls a "great interpreter of Johann Sebastian Bach's music".
Then Martins met designer Ubiratã Bizarro Costa, who was able to create bionic gloves for Martins to give him the gift of making music once again.
"I did the first models based on images of his hands, but those were far from ideal," Costa said. "I approached the maestro at the end of a concert in my city of Sumaré, in the Sao Paulo countryside. He quickly noticed they wouldn't work, but then he invited me to his house to develop the project."
Costa and Martins finally arrived at their final glove in December 2019, which Martins said he doesn't take off pretty much at all. You can watch Martins and his gloves in action below, but I'm warning you now – it's a tear jerker.
