"I have to listen a hundred times just to catch what someone on my level would be able to catch the first time". Growing up with hearing loss isn't easy, and pursuing a career in music is perhaps even harder, especially when the extent of hearing loss changes drastically over time. Yet, Azariah perseveres and actively looks for means by which he can give back and nurture others to success.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00An important trait, I think, is love, because love is what helps us keep going even when it's difficult.
00:08It is the best motivation and it helps us to persevere.
00:18Hi, my name is Azariah and I'm a deaf pianist.
00:23I love music, I love the piano, I love sharing the gift of music with others.
00:28So I was diagnosed with hearing loss at the age of four years old
00:33and my parents, they fitted me with hearing aids.
00:37They also went for specialised training and brought me for a lot of specialised training.
00:41Speech therapy, how to raise children with hearing loss
00:46and I thought they really put a lot of effort into training me.
00:52So that's why I'm able to speak as my main form of communication
00:58and able to enter mainstream school.
01:01So my musical journey started when I was about four.
01:04Actually before that, my parents had exposed me to a lot of music.
01:08They brought me to concerts.
01:10When we were in the car, they would listen to classical music all the time
01:14and then I had piano lessons.
01:16When I was homeschooled around 12 years old, I had more time to explore music.
01:20So I found myself listening to a lot of CDs.
01:23I had lots of pieces that I really enjoyed listening over and over again
01:27and I started to be serious about my piano practice.
01:31After that, I attended music festivals, competitions.
01:35I went to music school and that's brought me to where I am today as a pianist.
01:41Hearing aids have been a big help in speech and in music.
01:45I remember that when I was very young, maybe four or five,
01:49my parents told me this funny story
01:52that when they called my name, Ezra, I wouldn't reply.
01:57But when they said something like Batman, I would reply.
02:03And so they thought that I was just being selective in my hearing.
02:07But that was not the case because the consonants belonged to a lower frequency
02:11which is why I was able to hear better.
02:14So the thing about hearing aids is it boosts the frequencies that I'm not able to hear well
02:19so that I'm able to hear as much as a normal person can hear.
02:24Of course, there are limitations but it was a big help for me.
02:29My hearing condition deteriorates but it is slow, it's gradual.
02:35At the age of four years old, my hearing loss was about 50%
02:39and now it's lost about 85 to 90%.
02:43So I've had to change many hearing aids over the years,
02:47each time more powerful than before.
02:50But one thing I really appreciated is having good audiologists that I can work with
02:55to tune each and every hearing aid to my specific needs.
02:58And especially as an artist, my needs are not just communicating with others through speech
03:04but also music.
03:06Sometimes hearing aids think that the music is actually noise.
03:10So I have to work closely with the audiologist to train the hearing aid
03:15so that it recognizes music and it just absorbs all the sound.
03:21It doesn't remove any of it as noise.
03:24In fact, some of them would even come to my place where I have my piano
03:29and we would tune every single note of the piano of the hearing aid
03:33so that it would be matching, it would be even.
03:37So I have to thank the many audiologists who are willing to spend the extra time and effort
03:44to understand my needs and tune the hearing aid
03:47so that I'm able to hear music as well as I can.
03:51I have two different settings for my hearing aid.
03:54One is for speech and one is for music.
03:57If I'm hearing a TV program and there's a lot of talking,
04:01so I'm in my speech program.
04:03But if there's background music at the same time,
04:06then the hearing aid knows that it's music
04:09but it's not able to make much sense of the music.
04:13It will still be processed as speech and so there will be some distortion.
04:17I remember I had to work much harder than my peers in school
04:23because things that most musicians were able to do, I would struggle with.
04:29For example, listening to music and playing by ear as we speak.
04:33That is a real challenge for me,
04:35especially when I'm listening to music that's coming from a device.
04:39There's a lot of distortion.
04:41So I have to listen perhaps a hundred times
04:44just to catch what someone of my level would be able to catch at the first time.
04:49And it's something that I'm just not able to do.
04:52I have to recognize my limitation and focus on where my strengths are.
04:57But oftentimes there are creative ways of getting around different challenges.
05:03So I understand sometimes it can be challenging for other musicians
05:06to want to work with me because they may have this fear
05:11of not knowing what my challenges are.
05:14Whether I'll be able to do the same things as any other peer musician
05:19that is at my same level.
05:21It's quite normal as humans, we have this fear of the unknown.
05:25But that's where love comes in.
05:26Love moves us to want to understand others.
05:30Love moves us to communicate and work with others, to be inclusive.
05:35And then we'll find that there are creative ways to get around the challenges
05:39and we can still reach the same high professional standard as anyone else.
05:46I remember I had this wonderful collaboration with this musician
05:50and we put together such difficult music
05:53but we performed it to the highest possible musical level.
05:56I also really enjoyed working with singers such as Khawei and Claire and many others.
06:01We put together wonderful programs of music for so many dignitaries.
06:07It was a really special event and we even recorded the music that we worked on together.
06:11It was such a wonderful memory.
06:14Right now I'm serving on the Board of Artists.
06:17That's one way that I enjoy giving back to the community.
06:21And in a very personal, meaningful way.
06:24Because Artists is a charity that helps people with disabilities to excel at the arts.
06:31And I myself was a beneficiary of it.
06:33So being able to help out in a small way is what I enjoy doing.
06:38Other than this, recently I also conducted or directed a new series
06:45for the National Cancer Institute of Singapore
06:49called the Last Mile Concert Series.
06:51Last year we put together a wonderful program
06:55which had singer Joanna Dong and also wonderful musicians such as the Lawong Boys.
07:02We put together a very wonderful, inspiring concert program
07:08that raised a good amount of funds for cancer patients.
07:13In fact, this is part of this company that I started
07:18called Poignant Inspirations, which we're using to give back to society in different ways.
07:24With a focus on promoting artists with disabilities.
07:29Over the years, I find a lot of joy teaching as well.
07:32Not just in performing, where the focus is on myself.
07:35But I enjoy sharing the gift of music with others.
07:39There's a lot of joy seeing students grow as musicians, as artists.
07:45When you see a student that enjoys a favourite piece of music
07:48but perhaps they struggle with technical challenges.
07:52Then being able to work through those challenges,
07:54I think it makes them happy and it makes me happy as well.
07:57So I'm really looking forward to the World Expo at Japan next year
08:02where I'll be looking to play, I think, a big program.
08:07But this year there are many other smaller little programs that I'm looking forward to, perhaps.
08:13Such as accompanying other piano teachers or piano concertos.
08:18Many gigs for many different programs.
08:22And a wide variety of new music that I'm learning.
08:27Even though I have hearing loss,
08:29but this doesn't stop me from persevering and doing things for others.
08:35Giving back to society, raising awareness, sharing the gift of music
08:40and just conveying the message that love is most important.
08:44If we have love, that will move us to be inclusive, to be more understanding.
08:49It will move us to be persevering in whatever goal that we choose in our life.