Rhodri coming home on tour with top pianist
A MUSICIAN from Porthcawl is on tour with one of the most famous classical performers in the world.
Rhodri Clarke, 36, is currently touring the globe with legendary pianist David Helfgott, who was the subject of 1996 Oscar-winning film Shine, after a chance encounter Down Under.
David – played by Geoffrey Rush in the film, who won Best Actor for his performance – became known as a child prodigy after his father taught him how to play the piano aged just five.
After training at the Royal College of Music in London, he returned home to Australia, where he is still based.
Despite suffering with schizoaffective disorder, which saw him in and out of hospital, David’s career has flourished with tours all over the globe to show off his impressive talents.
Rhodri played with David in two UK shows after touring all over Europe and Australia with him.
He now lives in Melbourne but grew up in Porthcawl and said his love of music began when he was eight.
He said: “One night my dad came back from the pub and said I’ve just bought a piano for £10. He then managed to arrange a horsebox to bring it back to the house. I took to the piano like a duck to water, I just loved it.
“My first piano recital when I was aged 14 was actually David Helfgott. It was when the movie Shine first came out and he’d just won the Oscar. On the back of all that he started a world tour and came to Cardiff and I remember watching him then being transfixed by the way he performed.”
In a same twist of fate, Rhodri was accepted to the Royal College of Music, and after getting married, moved to Australia where he shared the same agent with David.
It was that mutual connection which helped Rhodri land his first per- formance with the pianist at the Sydney Opera House.
Since then, Rhodri has performed with David in Vienna and Lucerne, receiving standing ovations after each show.
Rhodri says working with David has been everything he imagined and more.
He said: “He’s just extremely exuberant. Before I met him I had an idea after seeing the film of what he would be like and he absolutely lived up to that.
“He’s very energetic and very chatty – to the point of almost never allowing there to be silence. He’s constantly speaking his thoughts.”