Fire on all Sides-Piano Works

Sometimes he appears as a James Dean lookalike with a cigarette, other times as an Easy Rider with flowing hair, sometimes as a nerd, and sometimes as a hipster – James Rhodes has many faces. The world has labeled him the bad boy of the classical music scene, but as is often the case, there is a soft core behind a tough exterior. The pianist's life story is marked by abuse, career setbacks, failures, drug excesses, profound losses, and ultimately a suicide attempt. In his autobiography "The Sound of Anger: How Music Kept Me Alive," he vividly recounts his journey and his relationship with music, using sometimes drastic and explicit language. Now comes his new book "Fire On All Sides," which was created during a tour in 2016. Within just a few weeks, the pianist performed in twenty cities under immense physical and emotional stress. In these lines, he reflects on the power of his depression.