James Rhodes (London, 1975) is one of the most eminent piano soloists performing today and a figure who has managed to breathe new life into the world of classical music. He has featured in documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, writes for The Guardian and gives recitals around the world. His musical career took off in 2009, when he released his first album, Razor Blades, Little Pills and Big Pianos. A year later he released his second album and became the first classical piano soloist to be signed to Warner Bros Records. To understand its success in Spain and Latin America, it is important to know that Instrumental (2015), a memoir that explains the child abuse he suffered and talks about the healing power of music, has sold 150,000 copies in Spanish and its film adaptation will be released in 2022. In 2016, with How to Play the Piano, he taught his readers how to learn to perform a Bach prelude in just six weeks. In 2018 he published Fire on All Sides, in which he reviews one of his most important tours and talks about his day-to-day experiences, fears and states of mind, always surrounded by music. Since then he has also published Playlist, an introduction to classical music in a rebellious key, and has just published Made in Spain, a funny, bittersweet testimony about the long road he took when he decided to leave his life in the United Kingdom behind to finally find his true place in the world. As an ambassador for Save the Children, James Rhodes has not ceased in his fight for the improvement of laws that protect children around the world, promoting the recent law for the protection of children from violence passed in the Spanish parliament and dubbed the "Rhodes Act." He has been a regular contributor to Andreu Buenafuente’s Late Motiv, and to Javier del Pino's Cadena SER programme. In addition, he writes a monthly column for El País Semanal from Madrid, where he currently lives.
Foto: © Erin Brubacher