A Pianist with a Cochlear Implant: Elizabeth’s Story

Elizabeth Elliott is a pianist with a cochlear implant from MED-EL. She recently performed at the Beats of Cochlea Music Festival and is currently helping to organize the Cowbridge Music Festival with her daughter. Here we’re excited to share her story of hearing loss and her cochlear implant:

As a cochlear implant user, my first wish is to try and convey hope to other people who, like me became deaf, but now have an implant. Having as I do a lifelong love of music, my thoughts are specifically from a musical point of view.

My Musical History

I began lessons on the violin and piano when I was about 10 years old. Later, I went on to study violin and piano at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. It was in my final year there that I started to lose my hearing at the age of 21.

When I graduated, my hearing loss was slight, but I was already experiencing difficulties. However, I pursued my career as a freelance violinist and also as a violin teacher, working as a full time musician in London.

At first, my hearing loss was gradual and I managed to keep my career going, but hearing music became increasingly difficult and I could no longer play my violin in the way I once had. By the time I was 25, I could not hear a symphony orchestra properly or the radio and television.

Hearing aids helped in the early stages, but were of no help at all as I became profoundly deaf. Devastated, I remember tears rolling down my face when I could no longer hear at a concert. My world had become silent and my career as a violinist was over forever. I was dependent on lip reading and people writing down what was being said.

I was therefore desperate to have a cochlear implant. There was a long wait, but finally in 2007 I received a MED-EL PULSAR 100 Cochlear Implant at the University Hospital of Wales. I shall always be grateful to have this implant and for the expertise of my surgeon, my technician and audiologists.

A Pianist with a Cochlear Implant

When the great day came for the implant to be switched on, I was over the moon to be able to hear sounds again. I could not understand speech at first and the piano was just a jumble of noise, like everything else—but as the days, months and years went by, my hearing became better.

Very gradually, I could have short conversations and begin to try to work out what music sounded like. However, I sadly had to abandon playing my violin forever, as I was not able to hear the fine tuning necessary for this instrument.

But it was the piano that was to become my redeemer. At first its sounds were so distorted that I nearly gave up. Nonetheless, I persevered over several years and the breakthrough came when I discovered that initially I could hear much better with an electronic keyboard. Within two weeks of acquiring my excellent Roland FP7F, I had practised and practised and given a concert on a ward at the University Hospital of Wales. I now play regularly at hospitals, hospices, cafes and events.

Being able to play again didn’t come quickly. In fact it seemed like a very slow process. But each small step was an encouragement, and therapeutic for me too, with the realization that I would be able to make music again. In fact, now, eight years since my implant, my perception of music is still improving. I feel this is because I am continually practising, searching for the sound of notes, the sound of the melody, the sounds of the harmonies. I can now, for example, with a lot of work, play the music of Chopin and also I am able to play an acoustic piano again.

How I Hear and Learn Music

Learning a piece of music is like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle. I use all my abilities and put them together to achieve a result.

There are two important issues to begin with. Firstly there is the tone of the instrument. For example, I can now immediately tell a beautiful tone from an inferior tone. So that’s fine. Tone quality is very good. The second issue is the actual hearing of pitch.  This is more tricky and has to be worked on in the following way.