Visually impaired Philadelphia students celebrate the holiday season with special concert
Elementary students who are visually impaired celebrated the holiday season with a special concert on Friday.
Doctors say people who are visually impaired often have enhanced hearing and musical abilities. That was on full display Friday in Northeast Philadelphia.
Sounds of the holiday season filled St. Jerome Church courtesy of visually impaired students from Saint Lucy School performing a Christmas concert.
Taking center stage, Saint Lucy graduate, 16-year-old Kyla Carberry.
"I can see lights and shadows, it's almost like darkness," Carberry said.
Carberry might not be able to see, but that didn't stop her from teaching herself how to play piano starting at age 4.
"I like to consider my disability as a different ability," Carberry said. "I was able to learn by feel because my hands are my eyes."
She said Saint Lucy's provided her with essential skills to thrive and grow her musical skills while being visually impaired.
"We can hear mostly because when you lose one sense the other sense grows," Carberry said.
A special guest for the concert, Bill McCann, who graduated from the Catholic elementary school for children with visual impairments in 1972.
"Just a wonderful place and great to be back here and see that it's living on," McCann said.
And now some of the musicians are using something McCann created.
"A way to automate transcription of print music into braille," McCann said. He turned that into a company called Dancing Dots. Its dots in braille allow the visually impaired to read, including, with McCann's help, music.
"It allows them to read scores and be able to study them," McCann said.
Here it's all about abilities, not disabilities, and celebrating the season of giving.
Carberry said after high school, she hopes to go to college and will always be playing pianos, maybe even professionally.
