'Cured by Chopin'

Milton — First United Methodist Church of Milton will hold a classical piano concert, "Cured by Chopin" this Sunday at 2 p.m. The featured pianist will be Robert Holtzclaw of Gulf Breeze who is giving this concert for a special reason. The free concert is at First United Methodist Church, 6830 Berryhill Rd.  

Holtzclaw was diagnosed with a debilitating disease called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and had to quit his professional business career.

According to the New England Medical Journal, Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, is multi-system disease that causes dysfunction of the neurological, immune, endocrine and energy metabolism systems.

While Holtzclaw was suffering from this illness he taught himself to play the piano and began to give concerts around Escambia and Santa Rosa County. The Santa Rosa Press Gazette met with Holtzclaw to ask some in-depth questions about his passion.

What made you decide on the piano and why did you focus on Chopin?

Downtown, I was listening to a lot of classical music and for whatever reason Chopin just spoke to me. I thought it would be really cool to be able to play a piece by him one day. So I bought a piano and learned to read music and play it.

How did playing the piano help you through your illness?

It gave me a reason to get up in the morning.

What made you decide to start playing publicly?

Music just expresses an emotion to me. I figured it was just selfish not to share it with others.

Will you turn this into a career?

No, I want to pursue my business degree again now that I am doing better from my illness. This will just be my hobby.

Do you still have complications from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis?

Yes, but I am making a lot of progress. I may have a bad day maybe once a week.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: 'Cured by Chopin'