Orchestra Brings Beethoven to the Deaf

AHungarian orchestra is helping deaf people to enjoy the music of Beethoven through touch. Budapest’s Danubia Orchestra Óbuda holds concerts for hearingimpaired people who quite literally feel Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. Beethoven himself battled with hearing loss and wrote some of his greatest music while going deaf.

Audience members sit next to the musicians and place their hands on the various instruments to feel the vibration. Others hold balloons that convey the vibration of the sounds or are given special hyper-sensitive hearing aids.

“When I sat next to the musician who played the double bass, I started crying,” says Zsuzsanna Foldi, who has been deaf all her life.

Conductor Máté Hámori says the aim is to bring music to people who otherwise have no chance to enjoy it, and to call attention to hearing difficulties that are often ignored.