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The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
NEWS OF NOTE
Marin Alsop, Wendy Cheng and Noah Chaves, BSO associate principal violist, who was Cheng’ s stand partner.
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Tuning in to Beethoven’ s Ninth
With the help of hearing devices, a violist plays with the Rusty Musicians
When Wendy Cheng was 9 years old, she was diagnosed with profound hearing loss in one ear. Over the years, hearing in both ears deteriorated and now Cheng, a Gaithersburg resident, wears two cochlear implants.
With the help of an assistive listening device, Cheng participated in the Baltimore Symphony’ s Rusty Musicians concert in November, playing alongside BSO violist Noah Chaves during the fourth movement of Beethoven’ s Ninth Symphony.
Chaves and Conductor Marin Alsop both wore transmitter devices that communicated with Cheng’ s receiver unit, allowing her to play in the section.
“ Many people have the mistaken impression that cochlear implants behave like corrective eyeglasses,” says Cheng.
“ You put them on, and everything then sounds great.” However, she points out,“ that is not always the case.” Cheng says she works hard to identify the octaves on her strings with the help of“ sympathetic ringing” and rigorously practices scales to ensure that her fingers have spatial memory.
Cheng, who says she became“ fed up” with audiologists’ focus on providing access to speech while neglecting the need to hear music, founded the Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss in 2014.
After years of avoiding orchestral music Cheng says she was thrilled that the Rusty Musicians program adapted to her needs.“ Beethoven’ s Ninth Symphony was probably the best repertoire for me to try playing in an orchestra again,” she says.
Rusty Musicians is made possible in part by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Comcast becomes BSO’ s Official Internet Provider
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Enhancing the patron experience
The BSO is excited to announce its first enterprise-level wireless system at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The enhanced system expands wireless coverage in the lobby and extends it into the auditorium and throughout the hall, enabling such innovative opportunities as use of the Octava app, text-to-give donations and concerts with heightened social media presence.
The BSO would like to extend a special thank you to Joanne Gold and Andrew Stern, whose generous gift made the installation of the new system possible. Additionally, the BSO would like to thank COMCAST for their partnership in this initiative by helping supply the dedicated Ethernet services to power the wireless system. We welcome them this season as the Official Internet Provider of the BSO.
4 Overture | bsomusic. org