Tony Cicoria was speaking on a public phone in New York when lightning struck him directly. It was 1994. He survived, said he felt himself leave his own body, and returned to his life as an orthopedic surgeon as if nothing had happened.
Until the following weeks began. Without ever having studied music, he felt an irrational urge to play the piano. The melodies, as he described them, came to his mind on their own, as if someone were sending them to him.
He composed The Lightning Sonata, performed it in public, and neurologist Oliver Sacks documented his story in the book Musicophilia. To this day, science has no definitive explanation for exactly what changed in his brain.
