By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Sarah Pearl Anderson’s first violin was gifted to her as a tool to help her refine her hearing and speech.
The 16-year-old budding violinist and piano player was born deaf, but after Dr. Jonathan Ferguson of OSF HealthCare helped restore her hearing, he then handed down three violins that once belonged to his children.
“He was so generous,” said Julia Anderson, Sarah’s mother. “He gave us the violins and he said, ‘she needs music in her life.'”
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Today, music is more than a tool for recovery for Anderson. It’s become a passion that the Auburn High School student hopes to continue pursuing in college and beyond. It also was one of the earliest ways she learned to express herself as she went through speech therapy as a child to hone her ability to communicate.
“Music was kind of a way for me to escape so I don’t have to speak,” Sarah Pearl Anderson said. “I’m OK talking to people with music, and it’s just a way for me to connect better.”
Music, she said, is a common language that allows people of any background to find common ground.
“For me it’s a way to connect around the world because everyone learns the same thing with music and you can play together,” she said.
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Anderson’s story was shared on Wednesday during a presentation by Rockford Casino, which was gifting $2,000 to the Rockford Area Music Industry from customers’ unclaimed vouchers. The casino has been donating those vouchers to a different nonprofit each month.
Anderson is a past recipient of the RAMI Young Artist Music Scholarship to The Music Academy in Rockford, 226 S. Second St., where she’s been practicing violin and piano for several years now.
Her story is illustrative of many students at The Music Academy, said Laura Eakman, the nonprofit’s executive director. She said many parents of children with a disability reach out to the academy to ask for help.
“It can definitely be someone’s ticket to breaking through the hardships of a disability,” Eakman said. “It can be the thing for anyone in the right circumstance.”
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Julia Anderson said her daughter couldn’t hear or speak when they adopted her from an orphanage in China. When she was still a toddler, Dr. Ferguson performed a procedure to drain fluid that had been trapped in her ear to restore her hearing. He then gave her three violins in progressively larger sizes so she could continue to play as she grew.
“The music became her voice,” Julia Anderson said. “It was a way to gain attention to people without really having to speak.”
“Music gave her a way to express herself.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.