"A skill and Musicality to Rival Any"

It is 27 July , 1989 in a large concert hall in London. The audience prepares itself for a unique event in
the history of classical music. The first solo percussion recital in the 95 years of the famous
`Promenade Concerts'. The performer is Evelyn Glennie, a small colourful figure , not only young and
female in a male world -she is also the first full-time British solo percussionist. She has also been
profoundly deaf from the age of 12.

Born on a farm in north east Scotland in 1965, Evelyn Glennie had, in her words, a very ordinary
childhood, sharing the normal farm work, the fights and the games with her two older brothers, Colin
and Roger. She first learnt the piano at an early age, and only began to have problems with hearing
when she was eight. `I wonder if I'm losing my hearing,' she wrote in her diary, but nobody else
noticed it at that time. Later, at the age of 12, her hearing was so poor that her parents were advised to
send her to a special school. Evelyn, however, refused to go to a school where she would not have her
music, and finally went to a normal secondary school. She told nobody about her deafness at first, and
was actually considered very unmusical!

As her deafness got worse, her love of music increased and she learnt to feel rhythms through her
hands and feet. She managed to win a place at the Royal Academy of Music, in London, where she
studied all kinds of percussion instruments. She also appeared on TV, radio and in magazines.

After graduating in 1985, she started her solo career, travelling to Rio de Janeiro, Japan, the USA,
Switzerland and Scandinavia, a star of truly international standing.

Her comments on this extrarodinary career? `I'm glad, at last, that people are talking about my music,
not my deafness.'

1. You are going to read different paragraphs taken from a text.

2. Work with a partner.

2.2 Comment on what your paragraph is about.
2.3 Put the paragraphs in order.

3. Where was the text taken from? What features tell you so?

4. Compare her life to Beethoven's life. Investigate the latter in an encyclopedia and make a
comparative chart.
E.g.:
5. What do the similarities and differences between both lives tell you about ambitions in life?

6. Do you play a musical instrument?

7. Which instrument do like to listen to?

8. Go to the Entertainment section of a newspaper and look for an article related to music. Rewrite it in
English. It's not necessary to translate. Notice how the article was originally organized and follow the
same organization.