How the Maestro Got His Hands Back

At the time, he was preparing for a big Carnegie Hall comeback concert for this fall, practicing for two to four hours every morning, but that's been pushed to next year. These days, Martins gets up at 5 a.m. to make the most of his time. “Sebastian, my dog, he licks my forehead and he asks for a little banana treat. I can't go back to sleep after that,” he tells me in a charismatic rumble. (Sebastian, a miniature ball of white fluff, looks exactly like a dog who would demand little banana treats at 5 a.m. with zero remorse.) “Then I open up the newspapers to see whether or not my name is in the obituaries. If it's not in the obituaries, I ask for two fried eggs, and then I start the day with the stamina of a 20-year-old young man.”

Thirty-five minutes of calisthenics, 250 crunches, and 500 stair climbers later, he'll sit down at his Steinway for some Bach. “Bach is my real breakfast,” he says. “That's my spiritual breakfast.”

https://www.gq.com/story/pianist-joao-carlos-martins-bionic-gloves