There is a large community of Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) kids in the Pacific Northwest. Every school day, they go to different school programs in the Portland and Salem areas, but they rarely have a chance to meet other DHH children outside their schools. These K-12 grade students were separated not just by location, but also by the school ideologies that form the basis for their communication needs. Some DHH children speak with their voices, others with their hands, and still others with a mix of both.

With so much diversity, what kind of event could bring these groups together in an experience that they could all connect with and be of interest to so many different learners? The Oregon Symphony Orchestra and CymaSpace’s Deaf multimedia artists decided to find out. Introducing the Oregon Symphony Orchestra/CymaSpace CymaConcert’.

On September 24th, 2019 from 10-11am at Grout Elementary School in SE Portland, CymaSpace founder Myles de Bastion and his team of technicians will collaborate on a youth concert with the Oregon Symphony Brass Quintet. CymaSpace has developed a digital lighting and multi-media system that lets the DHH experience music visually, representing different sound frequencies and instruments as colors and movement. The sonic performance of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra ensemble will be transformed into a visual experience in a beautiful synthesis of sound and light.

The K-12 grade students in attendance are invited from schools and institutions with diverse ideologies and approaches for educating Deaf students. Included will be students from Tucker Maxon School, Oregon School for the Deaf, and Columbia Regional Program DHH students. The CymaConcert will be an historic opportunity to bring these students together under one roof, giving them a sensory experience that they can all share as equals. To assist in the narrative by the musicians, sign language interpreters will attend each school group and there will be CymaSpace’s proprietary Portable Open Captioning System (POCS). 

CymaSpace is indebted to generous foundations that allow us to pursue projects like the CymaConcert. Financial support is made possible by the Oregon Cultural Trust, Regional Arts and Culture Council and The Collins Foundation. 

This program is the first of many future opportunities to provide access to learning and musical experiences to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community. This partnership is made possible for the Oregon Symphony through the generous support of individual donors, FamilyCare Health, the Regional Arts and Culture Council, the James & James and Shirley Rippey Family Foundation, and the Oregon Community Foundation, to name a few.

For further details about this concert please contact Monica Hayes, Oregon Symphony learning and community engagement programs director at 503-416-6312.
https://www.orsymphony.org/

For further information about CymaSpace and the Accessibility and Event Production services we offer, please contact Myles de Bastion, Board President of CymaSpace at .
For more information about the services CymaSpace offers, see our Outreach and Services Brochure:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lcjHMXwrU9RFfT_bwrR5WqebWVU_G7s-/view?usp=sharing

#seeingsound #cymaspace #OSO #deafpdx