Have you heard of Evelyn Glennie? She’s amazing.
She was born with “normal” hearing, but by the age of 12 she lost almost all of her hearing and then became legally deaf.
And yet, guess what she does … she is a magnificent, extraordinary, professional percussionist. Yes, a percussionist. And yes, she’s deaf.
Can you be deaf and be a musician? You sure can. Sound isn’t sensed just with ears alone. Notice in the photo above that she’s not wearing shoes. Stay tuned and I’ll tell you more. 🙂
Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, CH, DBE, is a percussionist from Scotland. She’s world renowned. She was selected as one of two laureates for the international Polar Music Prize of 2015. She has been given so many awards and prizes and accolades throughout her life that the list is too long to share with you here. The letters DBE stand for Dame of the British Empire and hold equal rank to KBE or Knight of the British Empire.
Just FYI … here is a list of a few other notable people to receive knighthood (KBE) or damehood (DBE) from The Queen:
- Sir David Attenborough
- Dame Agatha Christie
- Dame Jane Goodall
- Sir Winston Churchill
- Dame Judi Dench
- Dame P.D. James
- Dame Vivienne Westwood
- Dame Maggie Smith
- Sir Paul McCartney
- Dame Shirley Bassey
- Dame Daphne Du Maurier
- Dame Olivia de Havilland, born in Japan
A good introduction to Evelyn Glennie and her childhood and her musical training is here … https://www.ted.com/speakers/evelyn_glennie. That website is mostly text, although it has a number of links to other information about Evelyn, including one link to a TED talk. If you’d like to go straight to the TED talk and not wade through the text and other links, here’s the link directly to her TED talk … if you watch/listen to only one thing from the bunch of stuff available from that website, probably the best is this TED talk.
If the video above “hangs” at about 3:57, just click on the sound line at that same point or just a second or two past and it will continue playing.
I’ve been listening to Evelyn’s music online for quite a while now. I attended a concert of hers in Tacoma, WA, several years ago with friends who follow this blog. During that concert, she played the Timpani, the Marimba, snare drums, and all manner of other percussion instruments. She was a wizard. The music was beautiful.
Frankly, I don’t understand how anyone can play so many notes while holding four sticks, two in each hand, and be able to control exactly where the sticks hit on the Marimba (plus a few other percussion instruments at the same time!), and how hard or softly they hit.
I have a CD that I keep in my big white truck. It’s one of my favorite CD’s to play while cruising up the highway with my travel trailer hitched up along behind. Here are two of my favorite tunes from that CD … please turn your sound on before you play these.
A Little Prayer
Now let me stir things up a bit. I’ll end this blog post with a fun tune … a busy busy bee tune!
The Flight of the Bumble Bee.
How can she play so many notes so fast?!?!?
I don’t think I will ever forget her fabulous performance as the guest artist with the Seattle Symphony. 5 tympani and other percussion instruments were on the front of the stage, with the symphony orchestra behind her. She walked on the stage barefoot, so she could “hear” the orchestra. An utterly exquisite performance.
Me too Arlene. I saw her down in Tacoma with the Tacoma symphony behind her. Her music and her talk, her sharing so much verbally with the audience about her background, how she makes music, and just music in general … all of it was spectacular. If any other readers here get the chance to go see Evelyn Glennie, I’d sure encourage you to do so (and I bet Arlene would too). Evelyn makes music real, even if you have no music background or training. Thanks Arlene. 🙂
She’s cool to listen to, and she’s got great hair….
Ha! Yes, she has great hair!! Kristin, you have an eagle eye. 🙂
Extraordinary. What humans can do when “allowed” to do those things. I didn’t know about Evelyn Glennie. But I am now finding out when she’s next in the USA. If she’s anywhere near me, west of the Mississippi River, I’ll go. Great blog Ann, thank you.
Sesapa, I’ve been watching her “events” page for her next concert here in the western USA. I’ll see you there. 🙂
My sister and her husband attended a concert in London by Evelyn Glennie just last evening! They say she is truly marvelous. Your blog posting arrived the very day after. Thank you so very much. I have shared your blog with my sister.
How great is that! I just checked today and, indeed, Evelyn Glennie did have a concert in London the evening immediately after my blog post aired. And to know that your sister, Henry, was there is thrilling. I really like that. 🙂 Hello to your sister … and to you too, Henry, thanks for being part of my journey.
Wow. It’s amazing how she does that. And the music is really beautiful, I never thought that percussion alone could create music but it does.
Even “real” musicians don’t always understand that percussion is music … I didn’t when I was in high school and college. In fact, I just started to be aware of that fact when I learned that the daughter of friends of mine played marimba and other percussion instruments and then I started researching online and that’s when I discovered Evelyn Glennie several years ago. Even just a snare drum! It’s so cool, isn’t it Shawn? 🙂
What a memory! I played percussion in high school and college, including timpani and marimba. Even the other musicians seemed not to recognize our abilities. Evelyn is a wonder! That piece of hers “A Little Prayer” was written by her when she was just 13 years old. She’s a miracle.
Jamie, thank you for your comment. You are a percussionist, and I now know that you are a musician. We humans seem to put boxes around each other, let’s try to open those boxes and learn.
I didn’t realize Evelyn wrote that piece when she was 13, how extraordinary. Yes indeed, she’s a miracle.
Truthbetold, I always, from when I was a small child, absolutely adored the timpani. 🙂
She’s amazing. And now I have new appreciation for the percussion players in our community band. I always did, they play so many different instruments, sometimes at once, and now that I’m a librarian see their music and it makes no sense to me! Anyway, thank you so much for sharing her with us. I had not heard of her. It would be so fun to see her live!
Me too, Dawn. You sit there and play your clarinet (or I played my flute) and for my part I’d hear some beating on drums and such sort of in the background, but they weren’t NOTES, like a brass wind instrument would play, or a wood wind instrument, or a piano or other stringed instrument. Nevertheless, percussion is music.
Ha! and yes the written music for percussion is so different than you or I are used to.
If you get the chance, go see her. Blog reader Sesapa and I may be there too. 🙂