evelyn glennie lost nearly all of her hearing by age 12 but that didn’t stop her from becoming a world famous percussionist and composer. Rather than isolating her, her hearing loss has given her a unique connection to her music.
In this soaring demonstration on TED talks, deaf percussionist evelyn glennie illustrates how listening to music involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums. To watch this inspiring talk go here.
Why you should listen to her: evelyn glennie’s music challenges the listener to ask where music comes from: Is it more than simply a translation from score to instrument to audience? How can a musician who has almost no hearing play with such sensitivity and compassion?
We all have things to overcome to claim our creative selves. evelyn glennie’s barriers to her art have been more profound than some. But the creative way in which she has claimed it can be an inspiration to us all. I hope you will take the time to watch the video.
Please note: I didn’t capitalize evelyn glennie’s name because the seo program wouldn’t recognize it otherwise. I want people to be able to find this inspiring story.
P.S. I am an ex-shrink who writes award-winning novels. Check out my books here. (I also have severe hearing loss, and for many years I was a musician.)
I did enjoy that TED talk. Thanks for sharing it. Besides what she had to say, the pieces she played were quite beautiful. Here’s another TED talk that I stumbled across this summer that I really like by author Elif Shafak: https://www.ted.com/talks/elif_shafak_the_politics_of_fiction.html . I thought you might find food for thought there, too.
Hi Scout 🙂
Thanks for the heads up on the Elif Shafak TED talk. I’ll definitely check it out. Also, thanks for stopping by. Always nice to see your smiling face!!
And from an email subscriber:
“Thanks so much for this Susan. I have seen this incredible woman in person and am completely awed by her. Brains, beauty and talent. Receiving this was very timely for me, as I was thinking, just today how wonderful it would be if all the children of the world were taught from gestation to love and respect themselves so that they might be able to accept, support, appreciate and love everyone else. From that common ground, we could eradicate envy and bigotry, hatred, fear and greed.
There are many dimensions to all the five senses. The blind man that can ride a bicycle by ticking his tongue on the roof of his mouth in order to determine where obstacles are in his path; Mediums, horse whisperers and plant people. This wonderful musician. Just a week or so ago, a man who lost both arms and legs in an horrific accident , swam the English channel wearing prosthetic limbs. Another young man born without arms has learnt to play classical piano with his feet. In many ways, people like these indicate that perhaps we are more than just the sum of our parts.”
Here’s another deaf musician who certainly has inspired me….and Evelyn probably: https://andywilliamson.org/_/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/LudwigvanBeethoven1818.jpg
Oh, by the way, here’s a musician to inspire: nearly blind since birth, raised in poverty, and completely self-taught, some consider him the greatest pianist of all time. Vladimir Horowitz was brought to hear him once and cried afterwards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Cs_zb4q14&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib_3iZHIaqA&feature=related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLIYB4wn46s&feature=related