INSPIRING, POIGNANT .... AND SOMETIMES HILARIOUS! (10/30/2010)

This year, 2010, marks the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Not only has this act improved opportunities for people with disabilities and allowed them more access to so many things we "able-bodied" folk take for granted, it has also raised the consciousness of us all. The New York Public Library included a concert by musicians with hearing loss at the Bruno Walter Auditorium on October 30.  Many of the performers are members of the Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss (AAMHL), an organization founded by violist Wendy Cheng.

Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss website

Large font programs were available for those with vision impairment and audio devices were available for the hearing impaired. The entire program also benefited from simultaneous captioning. 

The first set of pieces for guitar solo was performed by Charles Motokoff.  I thought it interesting that although the guitar is by nature a subdued instrument, Motokoff chose works that for various reasons (such as repetition and strong rhythm) could be appreciated by all. He performs with the benefit of hearing aids. It was a stroke of genius to begin the concert with this performer.  One automatically listens more closely when the sounds are quieter.

The next set of pieces were composed by Jennifer Castellano, a young composer and pianist (well, she is 29 )who is both aurally and visually impaired. The works, for flute solo, piano solo and oboe solo, were very imaginative and evocative. To close the first half of the program, Ms. Castellano performed Aaron Copland's humorous "The Cat and the Mouse."  She conveyed the various moods of this work very effectively.

The humor of the Copland work paved the way for the second half of the program, selections from the musical comedy Incredibly Deaf Musical by Jay Zimmerman.(Jay Allen Zimmerman Webpage). Mr.Zimmerman introduced the work with a very touching account of how he both lost his home in Manhattan on 9/11 and also lost much of his hearing (apparently unrelated to 9/11). Forced to move with his family to Virginia, he seriously contemplated abandoning his career as a composer and performer (piano) because of his deafness and his need to support his family in some way.  He discovered AAMHL, which turned his life around. His musical is based on his personal experiences with deafness and how he and his wife dealt with the situation. It is both poignant and extremely funny.  His is a gift that deafness would not silence.  In his opening conversation with the audience he noted that he cannot hear upper pitches, the pitches in the middle range are distorted, and the lower register is clearly audible.  Therefore, he commented that he "clings: to the low register, "ignores" the middle register, and "imagines" the upper register when he plays.  Because of his extensive training and performance/composing experience he draws on this embedded background as he composes and performs. 

The entire program was exceptional on every level.  It opened up my mind as to what can be done to enlarge the audience experience and encourage those who face the challenges of  hearing, visual and other impairments.