Deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie got PromaxBDA Europe off to a rousing start with her session, “The Art of Listening,” which kicked off on Monday, March 24, in London with Glennie treating the audience to a performance of her art.

Referring to the conference’s theme, Mind the Gap, Scotswoman Glennie said: “My whole career has been about filling the gap in a way.”

Glennie, who has been a musician since she was a small child, started losing her hearing when she was eight years old. By age 10, she needed hearing aids. Her doctor told her she would no longer be able to play music.

But even at that young age, Glennie was not to be deterred: “I said I will be the one to decide what I can and cannot do.”

At 12 years old, Glennie was introduced to percussion via the school system, where she was inspired by musicians during an assembly.

“What is a musician? What does a musician do? She or he deals with sound, making that into a sound story or a sound meal – that’s what we do,” Glennie said.

As she grew up, Glennie decided that she wanted to be a solo percussionist, something that previously hadn’t been done. Percussionists played in bands or orchestras, but they weren’t able to survive as soloists. People repeatedly told her this, but her response was: “All of these barriers were being popped up but they simply weren’t on my radar at all.”

For Glennie, sound is more than just a way to distract herself or cover up other sounds she doesn’t want to hear: sound is an integral part in the way she experiences the world.

“Imagine our bodies as being like a huge ear,” she said. “We are inclined to put our earphones in our ears when we go on an airplane to drown out the noise of the airplane. We feed more sound into our ears, and try to eliminate that sound by putting more sound in to our ears. Is jet lag all about just that time difference, or is it the fact that you simply aren’t allowing the body to resonate with that airplane and … be in a natural state.

“That’s how I have to function – I rely on the body being this resonating chamber.”

Glennie creates sounds and then performs them, and during those live performances she experiences additional creation.

“When you are participating in a live performance, you have that chance through the ear to absorb the space that we’re in, to allow the audience to be a part of that performance,” says Glennie. “When you have the chance to feel that journey, that creates a completely different kind of interpretation. That is part of the listening experience and of embracing the environment and the audience. We are all part of that composition. We are all part of that piece of music.”

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“Live performances are just a moment in time,” says Glennie, “and they are always a give-take. They give me something that would never happen in a practice room.”

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