Fast Friends

Picker met Oliver Sacks at a dinner party in 1994. Picker, whose Tourette's went undiagnosed until he was in his thirties, was initially interested in Sacks' opinion of his symptoms. Soon, however, Picker and Sacks would become close friends (Read More).

Mutual Inspiration

Tobias Picker and Oliver Sacks’ respective artistic and scientific interests cross-polinated: Picker was fascinated by Sacks’ exhaustive empathy, winsome quirks, and whirring intellect, while Sacks was riveted by Picker’s preternatural focus, innovative musicianship, and Tourette Syndrome. Picker would become one of the subjects of Sack’s book Musicophilia.

Tobias Picker, the distinguished composer, also has Tourette’s. but when he is composing or playing the piano or conducting, his tics disappear. I have watched him as he sits almost motionless for hours, orchestrating one of his études for piano at his computer… Picker writes in every mode—the dreamy and tranquil no less than the violent and stormy—and moves from one mood to another with consummate ease.

Picker’s music was a constant inspiration to Sacks, as he wrote in the preface to his book Island of the Color Blind:

I owe a special debt to Tobias Picker's version of The Encantadas… whenever, in the writing, memory failed me, listening to the piece operated as a sort of Proustian mnemonic, transporting me back to the Marianas and the Carolines.

The Origins of Awakenings

After the premier of Picker’s An American Tragedy, Sacks wrote to Picker:

Dear Tobias…

I really think you have written a masterpiece … I could not think of the Music, the Drama and the Staging separately – they came together as a marvellous whole. It is easy to believe that it has demanded ten years of work, of your life… I cannot help wondering what will come next … (as a sort of creator myself) I know that one is always thinking, consciously or unconsciously, of new ideas, projects, etc. In particular, of course, I wonder if you have had any further thoughts about Awakenings.

Taking up the challenge, in 2010 Picker premiered the ballet “Awakenings” (choreography by Aletta Collins) with the renowned Rambert Dance Company; it toured widely, with nearly 80 performances throughout the UK.

Now, in 2022, Picker’s vision of Oliver Sacks and Awakenings reaches its greatest height with the premier of the opera, Awakenings. The opera further probes into the themes originally explored by the groundbreaking book: statuesque immobilization, locked-in secrets, and the poetic possibility of renewed life.