Music Making a Difference

Middle schoolers spent a morning learning about Dame Evelyn Glennie, a venerated Scottish percussionist. 

Dame Glennie was born in Scotland in 1965 and learned to play the piano and clarinet as a young girl. At the age of 8, she began to lose her hearing and by age 12 she was profoundly deaf. As a result, she learned to play percussion instruments (including drums and keyboards) based on the vibrations she could feel without having to “hear” them and eventually was accepted to the Royal Academy of Music of London and is the world’s only professional solo percussionist. 

The class read a book titled Listen about Dame Glennie’s life, then went to the band room where Mr. Neville had set up a huge array of percussion instruments to try out. Not only did everyone have a chance to try out marimbas, gongs, base drums and shakers, but we also talked about how the different instruments felt when we used them.