The feel of music
On of the world’s most famous musicians “hear” through her feet. Evelyn Glennie is profoundly deaf- she has very serious hearing loss. She plays music by feeling the movement of sounds.
As a child, Glennie learned to play several musical instruments and was especially good at piano. But when she was eight, she started to have hearing problems. That did not stop Glennie’s love for music. She soon realized that she could “heat” notes in her feet and body.
At age 12, Glennie decided to take drum lesson. She studied at England’s well- known Royal Academy of Music at 16. At 23, she won her first Grammy. Glennie now plays more than 100 concerns a year. She practices and performs with no shoes on.
Glennie performs with world- famous musicians like the Kodo Japanese drummers, Bjork, and orchestras in the United States and Europe. She is also a keen collector of percussion instruments. She owns more than 1,800 drums and other instruments.
