Happy 85th birthday to o Maestro, João Carlos Martins! Born on 25 June 1940 in São Paulo, Martins established himself as one of the most brilliant keyboard interpreters of Johann Ses=bastian Bach in the second half of the 20th century.
Yet his Bach legacy is just one component of an artistic journey marked by both acclaim and adversity. João Carlos Martins’s story is as much about resilience and reinvention as it is about musical brilliance. Following prodigious beginnings – he made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 20 – repeated injuries to his hands forced Martins to step away from the piano, just as he was reaching the height of his international career. But rather than retreat from music, he redirected his focus to conducting, bringing the same fervor and eloquence to the podium that once defined his playing.
Martins additionally became an enormously influential cultural force in Brazil. Through his Bachiana Foundation, he has brought classical music to thousands of young people, many from underserved communities, creating access where there was none. Alongside this work with the Fundação Bachiana, Martins has also been a champion of Latin American composers.
His initiatives have blended high artistic standards with social impact, forging a vision of music as both an expressive art and a tool for transformation. Under his leadership, the Bachiana Filarmônica SESI-SP has become one of Brazil’s most dynamic cultural foundations – a platform for emerging talent and a vehicle for national pride, performing everywhere from favelas to major concert halls.
Martins’s late-career return to the keyboard – made possible by specially adapted bionic gloves – has added an inspiring new chapter to an already remarkable artistic narrative. Following his moving farewell concert at Carnegie Hall last month, Martins continues to extend a career that has continually defied limitation as he devotes himself to a broad new initiative to improve music education across Brazil.
Feliz Aniversário, Maestro! Your artistry continues to resonate far beyond the concert hall.
An archive of JCM videos can be found here.
Filed under: Bach, Brazil, music news, classical-music, music, news, piano, rock
MEMETERIA by Thomas May 