For Adelaide based pianist, composer and singer/songwriter, Rich Batsford, the latter part of the run of his Adelaide Fringe show Mindfulmess was tinged with worry as a lump which had been growing on his finger began to cause him problems.
The finger was starting to contract into a claw shape, forcing Rich to make adjustments to his playing and raising concerns about the possible cancellation of the latter few shows. Fortunately Rich made it to the end of the run, gaining some several good reviews.
By the time of his surgery, the tip of his finger was almost pushing into the palm, but thankfully the surgeons at Adelaide’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital were able to remove the lump and restore the finger to something close to its original state.
Post-op analysis has shown the lump, originally thought to be a giant-cell bone tumour, is due to Dupuytren’s disease which causes thickening of the connective tissues in the hand. Unfortunately, there’s an even chance it will recur, but it is treatable in various ways, so is hopefully not a threat to Rich’s long term career.
Meanwhile, Rich has been working with Adelaide electronica artist Jason Sweeney in producing short ambient pieces for Stereopublic, an art project involving a smart phone app which triggers relaxing music as users traverse a city space. After the success of the project in Australia, the app is currently being rolled out for cities in Europe, America and China.
Rich says ‘I’ve never had a single disease in my life so far, so I’ve been very lucky, tho as pianist, its a bit ironic that the first turns out to be a disease of the hand. Still, I’m relieved its treatable, am very grateful to all at Queens Elizabeth and am looking forward to getting back to the piano soon to learn to properly play some of the many new pieces of music I’ve written in the last few years.”
www.richbatsford.com – www.youtube.com/user/RichBatsford – www.twitter.com/richbatsford
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