Here music and medicine speak one language
This is the first undertaking in the world whose aim is to present to a wide audience artists – children and adults – whose musical talent has been saved thanks to the progress of science and medicine that has taken place in recent years. This year marks the tenth edition of this extraordinary event.
Once deaf or profoundly hard of hearing, today they can pursue their passions and even think about a professional artistic career. They have demonstrated incredible fortitude, determination, extraordinary diligence and talent. They have shown through their artistic achievements how one can and should cross the boundaries of impossibility. They have become a testament to the genius of science and the power of musical passions.
Fantastic participants
– In 1992, when I performed the first cochlear implant surgery in Poland on a deaf person, I did not even dare to dream that one day we would be able to treat hearing disorders so effectively and that we would witness such amazing effects. Today it is a reality – we can help almost every patient – says Prof. Henryk Skarżyński, director of the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing, initiator of the “Beats of Cochlea” Festival.
Deaf children, who until recently were condemned to a life of silence, can develop properly and study in mainstream schools and music schools thanks to cochlear implants. They can not only sing and play instruments, but also – if they have enough talent and perseverance – seriously think about an artistic career – he emphasizes. With current methods of treatment, hearing impairment is no longer an obstacle.
– Welcoming the participants and congratulating the finalists of each edition of the Festival, I expressed my conviction that it was worth making the effort. I believe that for many talented people and their loved ones it was simply an unforgettable adventure, and for some – and I believe in them – it became an introduction to a musical career – emphasizes the professor.
And he says that the idea of showing artistic talents to a wide audience – vocal and musical, revealed thanks to the progress of science and medicine, was born in his head years ago, when he tried to restore the hearing of one of the students of a music school. This struggle ended in success. After the cochlear implant, the patient passed her high school leaving exams, completed medical studies, defended her dissertation for the degree of doctor of medical sciences, and currently works as an assistant professor at a medical university. – And he still plays the piano beautifully, proving that cochlear implants also make it possible to realize musical dreams. – says Prof. Henryk Skarżyński with a smile.
Much could be written about the story of Mrs. Małgosia and other patients of the professor. Their health experiences and extraordinary determination to feel good in the world of sounds are ready material for a film script. One of the patients, Grzegorz, has already become the hero of two films: the documentary “Moja sonata Księżycowa” directed by Barbara Kaczyńska, director of the Snail Rhythms Festival (available on YouTube), as well as the feature film “Sonata” directed by Bartosz Blaschke (available on Netflix). Several patients also appeared in Agnieszka Krótki-Żmijewska’s film “Czy Pan mnie dźwięk?”. The professor’s talented patients can also be seen in Luiza Budejko’s film “Przypadek Beethovena”. Several winners of the Festival, patients of prof. Henryk Skarżyński, appeared in the musical “Przerwana Cisza”, whose libretto was written by prof. Henryk Skarżyński, music by Krzesimir Dębski, and directed by Michał Znaniecki.
– Today I am convinced that it was worth organizing “Snail Rhythms”. It was worth showing the extraordinary talents and skills of our patients. – says Prof. Henryk Skarżyński. Over the course of the next editions, over a thousand artists from all over the world have declared their willingness to participate in the Festival.
Excellent jury
The festival participants are fantastic at what they do. The best of the very good perform at the gala concerts, as decided by the Festival jury, which over the course of 10 years has included, among others, (Ⴕ) Prof. Ryszard Zimak, Prof. Janusz Olejniczak, Prof. Ryszard Karczykowski, Stanisław Leszczyński, Bogna Kowalska, Piotr Metz, Jacek Wójcicki, Prof. Jerzy Stuhr, Monika Zalewska, Roman Czejarek, Vadim Brodski, Irena Santor, Grzegorz Wilk, Janusz Tylman, Dr. Alicja Węgorzewska-Whiskerd, Jacek Wroński, Prof. Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, Johanna Pätzold, Małgorzata Małaszko-Stasiewicz, (Ⴕ) Prof. Jerzy Marchwiński, Maciej Miecznikowski, (Ⴕ) Ewa Podleś, Christine Rocca, Prof. Anna Jastrzębska-Quinn, Hanna Śleszyńska, Marcin Kusy, Michał Klauza, Julita Sokołowska, prof. Ewa Iżykowska-Lipińska, Krzysztof Malicki.
This distinguished body was chaired by Prof. Ryszard Zimak, a conductor, teacher, and long-time rector of the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, who died in 2021.
Prof. Zimak did not hide his emotion when recalling the first edition of “Snail Rhythms”: I accepted the invitation to participate in this event from Prof. Henryk Skarżyński with great joy, but also with some fear, how to evaluate deaf people who play and sing. What criteria to adopt. Together with the other members of the jury, we decided that we would not evaluate, but make a choice, because, as Prof. Skarżyński said, in this Festival everyone is a winner. After five years, when I see the winners of the first, second or third edition on stage, performing in a duet with professional musicians and accompanied by a symphony orchestra, I already know that I was wrong in some matters.
Only a few students of music academies are able to “fit in” with the orchestra, because this requires a harmonic ear, and the winners of the previous editions did it perfectly. The duets they created with outstanding musicians were truly masterful. You can also see their enormous progress in both playing and singing techniques. In the latter case – incredible work on voice production. I have great respect for all of them, because I know what a path one has to take to become a musician. People with implants who present their music to us are heroes. I would like this noble initiative to expand in our country, in Europe and in the world. As Professor Zimak emphasized, the fact that patients could perform these pieces so beautifully on a large stage is the merit of Professor Henryk Skarżyński..
During the gala concerts, the laureates were accompanied by: the Polish Radio Orchestra conducted by Prof. Krzesimir Dębski, the Orchestra of the Tadeusz Sygietyński State Folk Song and Dance Ensemble “Mazowsze” conducted by Wojciech Gwiszcz, the Divertimento Orchestra of Elżbieta Ostrowska, the Warsaw University of Technology choir, the Bonjour string quartet and the Masovia String Quartet.
In addition to the patient artists, many well-known and popular artists also took part in the final concerts – some of them also have hearing problems. Currently – as they themselves admit – they can practice their profession thanks to the fact that they had previously undergone effective treatment.
Accompanying events
The festival is held in parallel with an international scientific conference, the main topic of which is the assessment of the ability to perceive music by people with a hearing implant. Many scientists from Poland and abroad participated in the seminars, including Prof. Nina Kraus from Northwestern University (USA) who studies music perception, Dr. Christine Rocca, director of the Music Therapy Center Nordoff Robbins/Mary Hare Music Therapy Unit (Great Britain), Dr. Heike Argstatter from the German Center for Music Therapy Research in Heidelberg, Prof. Stavros Hatzopoulos from Ferrara, and Gilles Cognat – long-time chairman of the European Federation of Cochlear Implant Users (EURO-CIU).
Music and medicine
The “Snail Rhythms” Festival is the first musical event of its kind in the world, but not the first event with the participation of musically gifted patients organized by the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing. – They have performed many times during important celebrations or anniversaries commemorating pioneering operations and undertakings. – notes Prof. Henryk Skarżyński.
The Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing is a leading research institute and highly specialized hospital in Poland. For over 20 years, the largest number of hearing improvement surgeries in the world have been performed here. Over 32 years, over 600,000 surgical procedures and over 5 million consultations and tests have been performed here. Currently, around 14,000 people with hearing implants are under the care of this facility.
– I am very happy that we can offer many patients something more, in addition to top-level medical care – help in realizing their passions and dreams and developing professional careers. Even the greatest dreams would lose momentum and ideas would not be realized if it were not for the support and kindness of many people – emphasizes the professor. – In the finale of each edition I repeated: “Highly Distinguished Guests, Friends, Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you to a gala concert – an extraordinary event where music and medicine speak one language. I invite you to listen to the effects of their combination” – recalls Prof. Henryk Skarżyński. And each of the performances is proof of how much can be achieved by people with hearing implants and how quickly their talent can develop thanks to the progress in medicine. And how medicine changes lives for the better.
– I tried to describe it, among others, in the words of the poem “The World I Can Hear”. When Prof. Krzesimir Dębski composed music for this poem, the piece became the festival anthem, performed every year by Barbara Kaczyńska, whose involvement in the organization of the Festival and the scientific part, as well as her vocal talent, are at the highest level. For years, she has been singing it with great passion with Maciej Miecznikowski, a user of a passive implant, as he himself says – he says. The anthem is performed together with all the laureates and artists taking part in the final concerts.
“And the hearing changes, and the voice changes, everything takes on a new meaning…” – today, after so many years of festival experiences and emotions, these words seem to resonate especially strongly.
On the occasion of the 10th “Ślimakowe Rytmy” Festival, a monograph was published, which is a summary of all the festival events and emotions to date. It includes those who in the subsequent editions of the Festival surprised with their skills, delighted, entertained, and sometimes moved the audience to tears.
The detailed program of the Conference is available at: https://festiwal.ifps.org.pl/konferencja/
