Annual Sense Lecture
The 2012 Sense Annual Lecture
‘Two musical journeys’
The sixth Sense Annual Lecture took place on the evening of Tuesday 13 November 2012 at the Institute of Physics in central London. Newsreader and journalist Samira Ahmed reprised her role from the last two years as Chair for the evening. The theme for the evening was ‘Two musical journeys’.
Our first speaker was Orla O’Sullivan. Orla is a music teacher, pianist and performer. She was six weeks old when she became deafblind. Orla was introduced to music by her mother - who helped her play the piano by holding her fingers on the keys so that she could feel the vibration and hear the sounds – she started formal piano lessons at the age of six. Multi-instrumentalist Orla qualified as a piano teacher in 1991 and continues to teach both deaf and hearing pupils but her greatest joy comes from live performances. Orla played pieces by Beethoven, Debussy and Ennio Morricone. She also talked about her experiences as a deafblind person growing up with music and describe the teaching methods that she uses with deaf and hearing pupils alike.
Orla has produced a CD 'Sound Senses' which contains solo piano pieces from extracts of Bach, Schubert, Chopin, John Field, Phil Coulter and many more. It is available from her website. Visit Orla O'Sullivan website
Our second speaker was Russ Palmer. Russ has Usher syndrome. He had a ten-year computing career before studying to qualify as a music therapist in Finland. In 2004 Russ received his first cochlear implant which improved his hearing and singing. In 2011 Russ had his second cochlear implant. This improved his musicality to a level where he is able to hear musical performances, instruments, vocals and new sounds and to perform as a musician with a band.
As well as having produced CDs and an award winning DVD with the Finnish Deaf Association, Russ gives international presentations and writes academic articles on music, cochlear implants and social-haptic communication with his partner Dr. Riitta Lahtinen. Russ is currently researching on the theme ‘Musical Haptices and Music and Cochlear Implant Perception’ with Turku University, Finland.
In November 2012 Russ released a DVD documentary 'Musical Perception of a Deafblind Cochlear Implant User '. In February 2012 he performed for the first time with a music band consisting of guitars, bass, and drums in Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, Finland. This 45-minute documentary includes interviews with professionals, friends and the band members who have co-operated with Russ over the years as well as extracts from the concert. The educational DVD will appeal to cochlear implant manufacturers, academics, professionals, teachers, parents and cochlear implant users who wish to explore their own musicality. The DVD will be available from his website.
Russ performed on the night with his friend, and fellow guitarist, Juha Sarkkola. He talked us through his extraordinary and ever-changing musical life, an ongoing musical journey. Visit Russ Palmer website
Transcript
You can download a transcript of the 2012 Annual Lecture in PDF, Word or text format.
About the Annual Sense Lecture
Now in its sixth year, our successful Sense Lectures feature leading experts or performers in their field.
The evening lectures, held in central London towards the end of the year, are renowned for being educational, inspirational and informative.
Free of charge, the thought-provoking lectures are open to Sense members and their families, deafblind people, Sense staff, and the public.
The lectures, each featuring two quite different speakers but with a connecting theme relevant to deafblindness, always have full communication support. Over the years, the audience has enjoyed lectures from explorers, scientists, and deafblind professionals.
With topics ranging from science through to communication and the performing arts, the audience has the opportunity to ask questions from the floor at the end of the lecture, while beforehand those attending can mingle with the speakers at an informal reception.
Previous Annual Lectures
Read our downloadable PDF transcripts of previous Annual Sense Lectures:
First published: Monday 14 May 2012
Updated: Thursday 21 March 2013