Chelsea comeback for Tourette's pianist

A British classical pianist who suffers severely from Tourette's syndrome will tonight give his first public performance for 15 years.

Nick Van Bloss, 41, retired and moved to Lisbon at the age of 26 after becoming overwhelmed with the condition which causes him to twitch 40,000 times a day.

But tonight the former child prodigy's self-imposed exile will end when he performs with the English Chamber Orchestra in front of 900 people at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea.

Mr Van Bloss explained today how the condition had taken over his life - since 1994 he has not performed for anyone but himself.

He said: "There is not a moment away from the piano when a muscle in my body is not contracting, or contorting. It's like something alien inside you, constantly pushing and pulling to get out. It is a pretty painful experience."

Playing the piano offers the only respite from the relentless tics: "I like to think of them sitting on deckchairs and enjoying the music. It shuts them up.

"For a few seconds before I start to play, I experience what it is like to feel that wonderful word: normal."

Mr Van Bloss was seven when he began experiencing the convulsions, but it wasn't until he was 21 that he was diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome. For years he defied the diagnosis, studying at the Royal College of Music and eventually launching a professional career on the classical music circuit.

When at the piano, Mr Van Bloss found that he could keep the tics at bay. But during a competition in Valencia in his mid-twenties his control abandoned him.

Mr Van Bloss recalled: "I was suddenly aware of this sense I had never been aware of at the piano. My head started to shake and my hands just shot up.

"I remember the collective gasp in the audience. I thought: 'Okay, you win. I'll be the failure'."

Tonight he hopes to bury his demons. "I like to think I'm turning a negative into a positive. Tourette's was the enemy, but I've learned to accept that it has also made me the musician I am today. It's like being cursed and blessed at the same time."

Neurological conditions have long been linked to musical talent.

It has been speculated that Mozart had Tourette's syndrome, while Australian pianist David Helfgott's long-running battle with acute anxiety neurosis was depicted in Oscar-winning film Shine.

Nick Van Bloss performs at 7.30pm with the English Chamber Orchestra, conducted by David Parry, at the Cadogan Hall in Sloane Square.