Tuesday (5/7) in ThisWeek Community News (New Albany, Ohio), Lori Wince writes, “New Albany Symphony Orchestra officials say they want to reach out to the hearing-impaired community with a performance in April 2014 that will feature a light show and a deaf violist, 16-year-old Israelle Johnson. ‘We’re doing a show trying to reach out to the deaf and hearing-impaired community, which is very underserved in the concert hall,’ said Heather Garner, director of the symphony orchestra. ‘We’re going to make them feel very welcome by adding [a] laser-light show that will be timed with music.’ The April 6 performance will close the 2013-14 season. In addition to the light show and Johnson, Canadian pianist Jon (Jackie) Kimura Parker will perform Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams and Ludwig Von Beethoven’s second piano concerto. ‘Beethoven was deaf in the latter part of his life, so he’s a really great inspiration,’ Garner said. John Moore, executive director of the Deaf Services Center of Worthington, said he was pleased the symphony orchestra would offer such a concert. … The concert will feature Johnson, who lives in Baltimore in Fairfield County and is a freshman in the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio’s hearing-impaired program based at Upper Arlington High School. … Johnson said she was born with hearing loss, but can hear the viola when using her hearing aids.”
Posted May 8, 2013