“Waking up to find that he was suddenly and entirely deaf in his right ear on June 15, 2010, composer Richard Einhorn’s biggest worry wasn’t that he’d never work again,” writes Lou Fancher in last Friday’s (9/30) San Francisco Classical Voice. Einhorn, who already had “only 30 percent hearing in his left ear,” had suffered “Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss, a medical emergency that occurs when the vestibulocochlear nerve goes wacky and basically, without immediate treatment with steroids, a person abruptly loses hearing…. Eventually, and largely due to technological advancements that have improved in-ear hearing aids, Einhorn adapted…. During a typical dinner at home, he can hear the conversation,” and he still composes, using new technology including hearing aids and apps. “Einhorn became active in the national nonprofit organization Hearing Loss Association of America [and] formed his hearing-loss consultancy firm.” Before becoming a composer, Einhorn produced recordings for Meredith Monk, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and others. Einhorn’s compositions include Voices of Light, a choral work that accompanies the silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc, and works for opera, orchestral and chamber groups, film, dance, and song cycles.
Posted October 7, 2016
