'Deaf and Loud Symphonic Experience' pairs DSO, deaf musicians for Detroit concert

Brian McCollum
Detroit Free Press
Deaf rapper Sean Forbes performs during rehearsals, for an upcoming performance with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, at the Deaf Professional Arts Network in Ferndale, Michigan on Wednesday December 12, 2018.

On a unique musical night that will have something for everyone, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and a pioneering deaf organization are out to give you something you can feel. Or see. Or hear.

The inaugural “Deaf and Loud Symphonic Experience” is being billed by organizers as a first-of-its-kind event: The Sunday concert will bring three of the world’s best-known deaf performers — percussionist Evelyn Glennie, rapper Sean Forbes and singer Mandy Harvey — to the Orchestra Hall stage. There, they'll be joined by the DSO, a band and guest vocalists for a concert spotlighting Detroit music, from Motown to Eminem.

There's far more to it than that. The evening will also be a visual extravaganza, teeming with onscreen lyrics, video sequences, a drum kit that illuminates to the beat, and two dozen sign-language interpreters expressing lyrics with their hands.

In other words, it’s a multisensory concert designed for both deaf and hearing audience members — an opportunity, organizers say, to show real accessibility and inclusiveness in a musical context.

Deaf rapper Sean Forbes performs during rehearsals, for an upcoming performance with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, at the Deaf Professional Arts Network in Ferndale, Michigan on Wednesday December 12, 2018.

Sunday night is likely just the start: Producers are aiming to take "Deaf and Loud" to orchestras across North America.

“It’s a good celebration at a high level,” said Glennie. “With the DSO, you’re talking about a world-class orchestra. We want them to feel different when they leave the stage, (to know) there are new ways to perceive sound.”

The concert will also be streamed live on the DSO's website and Facebook page, along with Detroit Public Television's site.

The show’s headliners make up a cross-generational trio of deaf talent: Glennie, 53, is a much-decorated Scottish percussionist who has played with orchestras around the world, including the DSO. Forbes, 36, is a rapper who grew up in a family steeped in Detroit music. Harvey, 30, is a Colorado singer whose dazzling voice and original songs propelled her into the 2017 finals of “America’s Got Talent."

Along with the DSO, they’ll be onstage with a band of Detroit A-listers, including bassist Kern Brantley, keyboardist Luis Resto and guitarist Dennis Coffey. Highlights will include a climactic performance of “Lose Yourself” that features a rare onstage partnering of Resto and Jeff Bass — the two musicians who wrote the Oscar-winning song with Eminem.

All will be delivered with an extra emphasis on low frequencies ("some boom to the bounce," as one show producer put it) to accentuate the vibrations crucial to the deaf music experience.

Composer Jake Bass, left, and Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie rehearse with other musicians at Deaf Professional Arts Network in Ferndale, Michigan on Wednesday December 12, 2018 for a Sunday performance with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The concert, which will include deaf musicians and performers, will be the first-of-its-kind concert in Detroit.

The project is spearheaded by Ferndale’s Deaf Professional Arts Network (D-PAN), co-founded by Forbes. D-PAN made its name in the mid-‘00s with polished videos interpreting pop and rock hits in sign language, and has grown into an all-purpose media outlet for the deaf and hard-of-hearing, with a staff of 25 and a web station — DPAN.TV — that includes a daily news program.

“Deaf and Loud" will bring the D-PAN approach to a concert setting, as American Sign Language (ASL) interpretations lend their own visual poetry to the musical performance.

That combination has been the signature style for Forbes, a 36-year-old Detroit rapper who signs as he rhymes. But for Glennie and Harvey — who have performed mostly for hearing audiences — Sunday night is a trailblazing sort of endeavor.

About 600 seats have been reserved for members of the deaf community, paid for by the concert’s sponsors.

“You're going to see deaf kids from around the state experiencing something that is completely inclusive. They're going to get the lyrics and understand the intent of the songwriter, all accessible in sign language at the same time," said D-PAN cofounder Joel Martin. "And there’s inclusion by being in a space where they’re able to enjoy something together with their mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters."

Rehearsals this week at D-PAN’s Ferndale studio gave a glimpse at what’s in store. After several Motown selections — with the virtuoso Glennie moving from marimba to vibraphone to bells — it was time for a Forbes solo number.

With the elegant Glennie providing a booming beat on tom-toms, the deaf MC lit into his biting “Mood Swings,” rapping and accompanying himself in sign language atop a customized wooden platform that kept him locked into the beat: Equipped with transducers linked to the band’s drum kit and bass guitar, the platform vibrated in time to the music.  

As Forbes performed, a video screen behind him flashed an energetic array of visuals and lyrics.

"It’s just another layer we can bring to the party by emphasizing the vibration while also emphasizing the visuals and the words," he said. "It's always been important for me to do that."

As for how they pull it off as deaf performers? Each of Sunday's headliners has a distinct technique. Glennie plays barefoot, and senses the vibrations of the orchestra and her percussion through the body — higher sounds resonate in the upper part of her body, she says, and lower ones further down.

Harvey, who had perfect pitch before going completely deaf by 18, also relies on vibrations absorbed through her skin, and through much practice, guides her singing via the buzzing and rumbling sensations in her nose and chest. Forbes is reliant on feeling the beat as he raps and gestures in ASL.

Sunday night's other ASL performers, including interpreters from Madonna University and Oakland Community College, won't be doing mere lyrical transcriptions. Sign language, after all, isn't word-for-word translation. Rather, they'll be lending their own individual creativity and expression to the performance.

“With sign language, there are so many different ways you can interpret a song,” Forbes said. “I might sign ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ one way, and someone else is going to sign it another way. The words (onscreen) are the commonality between everything.”

A Thursday preview dinner for "Deaf and Loud" sponsors gave Harvey a chance to showcase the voice that won the hearts of "America's Got Talent" viewers last year. Harvey delivered a mesmerizing performance of her original composition "Release Me," the song that sent her into AGT's final round.

Making it happen

At the DSO, the "Deaf and Loud" idea was quickly embraced by president Anne Parsons and her team when they were approached last year by D-PAN.

"It was a lot of work to put together the pieces of this big puzzle," said Erik Rönmark, the DSO's vice president and general manager. "But it was fun. We like to take on this type of project — it's a great way for us to show what we can do as an orchestra."

Rönmark said "Deaf and Loud" fits one of the big priorities in the DSO's mission statement: "to be a place where everybody can experience their world through music."

"It’s a great way for orchestras to connect with all of our communities," he said. "It's an untapped area that we hadn’t figured out exactly how to reach. This is a great way to bring them in and let them experience what we experience every week."

(L to R) Deaf rapper Sean Forbes and composer Jake Bass at rehearsals at the Deaf Professional Arts Network in Ferndale, Michigan on Wednesday December 12, 2018.

The program was the brainchild of musician and producer Jake Bass, the son of Jeff Bass and a longtime friend and collaborator of Forbes. Early on, he figured they might work with a chamber group. Something on the scale of the DSO was a pipe dream.

Then came the 2015 phone call from Glennie. She’d just read a profile of Forbes in the Washington Post and was eager to work with him.

Glennie is an accomplished musician who happens to be deaf, predominantly playing for hearing audiences while helping “push the percussion from back to front,” as she puts it. In Forbes, she saw an intriguing twist: an artist who was integrating music and sign language to tailor his performances to the deaf.

Forbes and Bass headed to Glennie's home in England, working up 45 minutes of material that eventually grew into the two-hour program that will hit Orchestra Hall.

"Everything snowballed organically," Bass said.

Bass, who studied music composition at Chicago's Columbia College, was tasked with charting the intricate scores that will be used by the orchestra's players. He eventually got input from a valued source: Motown's Paul Riser, who arranged many of the best-known hits in Detroit history.

For Bass, who will be on keyboard and guitar, the show comes with a special personal touch. He'll be sharing the stage with dad, Jeff Bass, who co-wrote and produced much of Eminem's best-known work. The Orchestra Hall set list will include an instrumental called "8 Mile & Woodward," featuring musical elements from the "8 Mile" soundtrack, in a nod to the old Bassment Sounds studio where a young Marshall Mathers started his career.

While Sunday night has been the focus for months, all involved in "Deaf and Loud" are confident the project can become a touring production, linking up with other orchestras and perhaps even playing festivals such as Coachella.

"Detroit music is all over the world, everywhere I go," said Forbes. "I'm in Israel, walking down the street, and I hear ‘Lose Yourself.’ I’m in Norway, and I hear a Motown song. I’m in England, I hear the White Stripes. So it’s not farfetched to think that this could really turn into something, especially with that Detroit branding on it."

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

The Deaf and Loud Symphonic Experience

With Evelyn Glennie, Sean Forbes, Mandy Harvey and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

7 p.m. Sunday

Orchestra Hall at Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center

3711 Woodward, Detroit

$50-$150

The concert will also be streamed live at www.dso.org and www.dptv.org

The music sheets that Jake Bass charted for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the "Deaf and Loud" concert.