Imagine directing an orchestra you can’t hear. Or playing a soundless piano for a staring audience.
Most know classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven struggled with deafness — but many don’t realize how much of a struggle it was. Beyond composing without hearing a note, Beethoven grappled with living in the 1800s when few understood deafness, hindering his ability to communicate, work as a musician and even find a place to live. How he dealt with this deafness is one of the great stories of humanity, not just of music.
What Do You Think Of That Genius?
You Might Also Be Interested In

Revisiting Franz Schubert, a Poet of Solitude

Godfather of Italian music

LEO ORNSTEIN: THE LAST OF THE ORIGINAL 20TH CENTURY MAVERICKS

Meet the Creators Behind the Bridgerton Musical That's All Over the Internet

Tchaikovsky: Conflicted, Neurotic, Brilliant

13-year-old Matt Savage has autism and a genius for jazz

Another Ovation for Joachim

Young Israeli makes impressive debut at Miami Piano Festival

At the Center of the Musical Universe Niccolò Paganini

Chopin as teacher

The mystery of Chopin's death

Extreme Drama: The Life And Music Of Richard Wagner
People Who Read This Article Also Read About...

The Boy Who Played With Fusion

William Blake, Radical Abolitionist

Why Conan O'Brien was such a brilliant late-night host

A Brain Injury Turned These 7 People Into Accidental Geniuses

Cockcroft’s subatomic legacy: splitting the atom

Sir Charles Sherrington's The integrative action of the nervous system: a centenary appreciation

The violent attack that turned a man into a maths genius

Nobel-winning brain researcher retracts two papers

THEODORE ROOSEVELT: IMPACT AND LEGACY

The significance of Jacob Bernoulli's Ars Conjectandi for the philosophy of probability today

Heat, work and subtle fluids: a commentary on Joule

William Cowper of the Inner Temple