Artinian Family Child ( Sound and Fury) in Newsday Story with New Cochlear Impant - And More on the Film

[Guest guest]

BobNote: Any that missed the classic deaf / Deaf film, featuring the deaf

Artinian family, Sound

and Fury, can have a free rental video delivered to your door courtesy of Uncle

Sam.. ( Sorry, US

residents only) Return postage prepaid. Such a Deal !!

Check out the Captioned Media Program @ http://www.cfv.org/

Many offerings from CMP can be viewed instantly in streaming video.. Sorry, not

the case in Sound

and Fury.

Enjoy and Learn

Bob

Now, to the story!

..................

From Newsday, New York, today

Mill Neck School for the Deaf

Quintet's performance a resounding success

LI Philharmonic ensemble's visit opens up world of music to children

BY CYNTHIA DANIELS

STAFF WRITER

September 22, 2004

Music did not play a part inC.J. Artinian's life until Tuesday when he met the

Long Island

Philharmonic Brass Quintet.

Although his teachers aren't sure what the live music sounded like to the

6-year-old, who could not

hear until after he received his cochlear implant two months ago, they can be

certain of one

thing -- it was good.

" I like the music, " said C.J. of Glen Cove, whose entire family is deaf. " I

never heard the music, "

he said when asked about life before the implant. Even his observation about the

melodic discovery

would have been impossible until recently: " It was loud. "

Eighteen other students from Mill Neck Manor School for the Deaf also

experienced the quintet's

ensembles. As the music played, some students placed their hands on the floor to

feel vibrations,

others bobbed their heads and a few clapped.

Of the group, eight had cochlear implants, a mechanism that sends sound through

a receiver, bypasses

the ear and arrives directly at the auditory nerve and the brain. Others wore

hearing aids and a few

had no device at all, yet all participated in the musical experience.

" Music is something not offered to deaf children because they've never been able

to benefit from

it, " said Fran Bogdanoff, the school's assistant superintendent. " Now with

better hearing aids and

cochlear implants, they have a much broader ability to hear and take advantage

of these sounds. "

During the half-hour presentation at the school, the children experienced music

through several

senses. They felt large and small cymbals for various vibrations.

They giggled and buzzed their lips together, after a prompt from the quintet's

trombone player.

They watched in amazement as blue tissue paper covering the tuba's bell puffed

out with each sound.

, 7, placed his ear so close to the tuba that its unexpected bellow

forced him to jump

back.

For the second-, third- and fourth-graders, nothing was more rewarding than

putting a song they had

been learning for nearly three days to music. Smiles emerged on several faces as

the quintet started

the refrain to " This Old Man. "

Loud and soft voices rose above the music: " This old man, he played one, he

played knick-knack on my

thumb. " The children slapped their laps and clapped on beat.

" This makes it very real, " said second-grade teacher Maureen Guarnieri. " It

brings it out of a book

and TV show and helps them put pieces together. "

Both the orchestra and the school plan to begin fund-raising next month, hoping

to develop a

yearlong music program for the students. Neil Birnbaum, the orchestra's

executive director,

estimated the program could cost about $100,000.

It didn't take long for the children to show their approval of the program.

As Guarnieri accompanied her students back to their classroom, loud shouts and

hums filled the air.

" Is she crying? " asked one concerned teacher who rushed to the hall to see what

happened.

" No, she's playing her trumpet, " Guarnieri explained.