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The pianist who escaped a sect and topped the charts
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More fantastical than fiction: Jean-Philippe Rio-Py, who goes by the stage name (AFP/Joel Saget)
F
rom a violent French sect to living on the streets of Los Angeles and to the top of the music charts, pianist Riopy's incredible journey is the epitome of the idea that music can save your life.
The 38-year-old, whose real name is Jean-Philippe Rio-Py and who wrote the score for award-winning films The Shape of Water and The Danish Girl, spent three weeks at the top of the classical charts in the United States last month. His music is streamed by millions around the world via meditation and yoga apps.
But it has been a hard road to success, worthy of a fantastical film.
"I had some bad luck that transformed into an opportunity," he told AFP in Paris.
That is quite an understatement.
The "bad luck" was a sect in the Deux-Sevres region of western France, where he was raised by his mother, along with two brothers and two sisters.
He faced beatings and other forms of psychological torment that left their mark in the form of an obsessive-compulsive disorder and chronic depression.
