Our senses are a gift.
Albeit gifts that we possibly all-too-often take for granted. For those that are born without one, they are missing out on something they never knew they could have to begin with. But, what is it like to have a sense and then experience it getting taken away? Seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching all work to amplify and enhance our daily lives. And for most, their passions are reliant on senses to pursue. Musicians are no exception. What would it be like to make music if you couldn’t hear the music you were making?
Meet Mandy Harvey. She’s a singer, and she’s also deaf.
Harvey is a pop and jazz singer-songwriter.
She quickly became a household name after winning fourth place in the 12th season of America’s Got Talent. It was there that she revealed her heart-moving story and performed original compositions during the competition.
Her story is a very unique one.
From a very young age, Harvey fell in love with expression by musical avenues.
To meet daycare needs, Harvey’s mother placed her into a choir class.
In an interview with The Ruderman Foundation, she revealed:
“I started as part of choir. My mom put me in a choir class, pretty sure for daycare needs. And I fell in love with it. I was always a hard of hearing child, so for me it was a way to be a part of a community and a part of the conversation and it kind of became addictive as my form of expressing myself.”
This passion continued to take root within Harvey, and she focused her college studies on Vocal Music Education:
“I went to school for education, I never in my wildest dreams wanted to be a performer. But I wanted to give other people the opportunity to express themselves and to be able to be a part of that community factor that I fell in love with and so I went to school for vocal music education and I was just happy.”
But it was at college that Harvey began to experience an alarming alternate reality, one in which she couldn’t hear anything:
“After months of being at Colorado State University, I started to have extreme difficulty understanding anybody and I couldn’t understand my teachers talking anymore. And over a course of nine months, I went from being slightly hard of hearing to being profoundly deaf, 110 decibels down in both ears.”
Harvey had in fact, fallen deaf.
It was later discovered that she had Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or EDS, and her nerves were deteriorating.
It was in the moment, while she was majoring in music, that she watched her future get ripped right from her hands. At a profound loss, Harvey determined she may never return to music with this devastating diagnosis. But she came to realize she was far from the end.
Harvey has been influenced by many deaf musicians and hasn’t let anything stand in her path.
Check out her inspirational performance for The Kennedy Center.
With immaculate grace, Harvey speaks on her own story of defeat and perseverance—only to offer the audience a beautiful song.
The song, an original, is entitled “Smile,” and it helped Harvey push through her darkest times.
One listen, and you’ll fall in love with her angelic voice, accentuated by the cool jazz band in the background.
Check out Harvey’s beautiful and inspirational voice in the video linked below!
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