Evelyn Glennie - an inspiring woman
Reading practice for English learners
Hello!
In this post, I want to tell you about another woman I admire: Evelyn Glennie. This is the second post in a series I’m writing to help you improve your English while reading real stories about inspiring women.
You can find the first post here:
Reading is one of the best ways to build your vocabulary and feel more confident in English. When you read in English, you see grammar and sentence patterns in context. You also learn new words naturally.
If you want to get more from the text, here are a few simple ideas:
– Try reading the story the first time without a dictionary. Guess the meanings of new words from the context. You don’t need to understand every word to enjoy the story.
– Read it again, and this time, use a dictionary to check the words you weren’t sure about. There’s also a glossary of the most difficult words at the end of the story.
– Write down and learn any new words you find useful.
– Try reading it out loud to practise your pronunciation.
When I was at secondary school, my music teacher got me interested in percussion. I had percussion lessons and played with the school orchestra and concert band.
From the age of 11 to 16, I went to an all-girls school. I never had any ideas about which musical instruments were more suitable for girls and which were for boys. Anybody could choose anything they wanted to play.
But when I was 16, I went to a boys’ school that took girls in the Sixth Form. As you might imagine, the boys were quite surprised to see a girl playing percussion! They weren’t sure about it at first but they accepted me quickly.
In my 20s, I played percussion in a brass band, which was great fun. Again, I didn’t see very many women playing the drums.
So one of my favourite musicians, and a woman I admire a great deal, is Evelyn Glennie. She is the world’s first full-time solo percussionist. And even more amazing, she is profoundly deaf.
She started to lose her hearing at the age of 8 and was diagnosed as profoundly deaf at the age of 12. She had an amazing teacher called Ron Forbes who taught her to feel sounds through her body. She can feel different sounds in different parts of her body and she performs barefoot to feel the music better.
When she was 16, she got a place at the Royal Academy of Music in London to study piano and percussion. But they didn’t let her in at first because of her deafness. She convinced them to judge her on her musical capability alone and she got in.
She plays percussion with world-famous conductors and orchestras. She also does solo concerts. In fact, I saw her in a concert when I was at university and I got her autograph!
She has a private collection of thousands of percussion instruments from all over the world. She has also designed and created some of her own instruments.
Many composers have written music specifically for her. She was part of the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, leading 1000 drummers in the opening music.
She has also been involved with campaigns, charity work and public speaking. She is passionate about encouraging the next generation to get involved in music and making music education available to everyone, including those with disabilities.
I feel so lucky that my school gave me the chance to get involved with music. Not all children get the same opportunities. In 2003, Evelyn worked with other musicians to persuade the government to spend more money on music education in schools.
She also believes in teaching people how to listen better. In 2023, she formed a charity called the Evelyn Glennie Foundation. The charity promotes better listening so we can understand and connect with each other on a deeper level.
Glossary
percussion - musical instruments that are played by hitting and shaking, like drums and the xylophone
percussionist - a person who plays percussion instruments
orchestra - a group of musicians who play music together, especially classical music (violins, trumpets, flute etc)
concert band - like an orchestra but without the strings
Sixth Form - two years of education from 16-18 in UK schools
profoundly deaf - someone who can’t hear most sounds
conductor - the person who stands in front of an orchestra, band or choir to direct them and keep them in time
autograph - signature of a famous person
composer - a person who writes music
charity - an organisation that raises money in order to help people
I hope you enjoyed reading about Evelyn Glennie. I plan to write some more posts about inspiring women soon.
See you next week!
Katie 💙
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