Parkinson's Sufferer's Mysterious Gift
June 30, 2005 -- -- Ten years ago, 58-year-old Greg Rice was the picture of success. The father of three was on the fast-track to the top, with little time for anything but work.
"Worked 80 hours a week sometimes," he told "Primetime Live" co-anchor Chris Cuomo.
Just when Rice thought he had his life under control, it took a terrible turn. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a debilitating neurological disorder.
Buffeted by the disease and the medications used to treat it, Rice's movements -- and even his speech -- became frighteningly uneven. "I was falling over. I couldn't even shave. My writing became terrible," he said.
Rice tried his best to hide his condition. Two years ago, he retired in order to spend more time with his young family. He lost almost everything to the disease. But in return, he got something he never could have imagined.
One day, while putting together a slideshow of family photos on his home computer, he realized it was lacking something -- a musical accompaniment.
So he sat down at a piano and wrote one, despite the fact that he had no formal musical training other than a few childhood piano lessons.
"Something just took over my hands and just played," he said. "I got at the piano and I started playing chords and scales and this tune came to me … Then about a month later I wrote another piece, and then I wrote another piece. And it just kept coming."
The compositions Rice produced were no simple melodies. He wrote chorales, waltzes, even a symphony.
Still, it was not an easy process. It took Rice hours at the piano to get his hands to play what he heard in his head, and then to work a keyboard and mouse to put those ideas into a computer.
"I can't write by hand anymore and I can't talk very well," Rice said at the time. "So it's the way I communicate, the way I express myself.
Rice's efforts drew the attention of Max Hobart, conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony Orchestra.
"The seriousness of his music is very contagious," Hobart said.
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