Cutting-edge wearable technology and one central Ohio orchestra’s new initiative are enabling Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind audiences to experience the power of Beethoven's music in a whole new way.
The Worthington Chamber Orchestra’s 2026-27 Masterworks series, Resonant, will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in 1827 with a season-long exploration of Beethoven’s legacy. The composer’s remarkable musical triumphs in the face of total hearing loss are also the inspiration for the orchestra’s initiative to make live music more accessible to the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind community.
“Beethoven’s legacy and the impact he had on classical music have resonated through time,” said Antoine Clark, music director, artistic director and executive director of the Worthington Chamber Orchestra. “I felt this was an opportunity for the Worthington Chamber Orchestra to continue reaching out to communities that don’t always get the opportunity to come to the concert hall.”
Haptic vests, which translate sounds into sensations that listeners can feel in their torsos, will be available to Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind audience members at all of the Worthington Chamber Orchestra’s Masterworks concerts.
“The vests can hear sound and create vibrations to that sound as a way to give someone wearing a vest a connection to the music,” Clark said.
Opera Columbus is lending WCO 12 haptic vests for the orchestra’s Feb. 21, 2027, Masterworks concert. In addition, WCO has purchased 12 haptic vests for its Masterworks concerts in 2026-27—and in future seasons.
“It will be a wonderful thing for us to move into that realm, to give access to a community that we oftentimes neglect when we think about classical music,” Clark said.
Dr. Marsha Moore, president of the Ohio Deaf Association and an instructor of American Sign Language (ASL) and Deaf Culture courses at Columbus State Community College, says WCO’s planned ongoing use of haptic vests represents even more than greater accessibility in the arts.
“It is an invitation for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people to experience music in their own way, for parents to see possibilities for their children and for families to discover that music can be part of their lives, regardless of how they hear,” Moore said. “There is something incredibly powerful about being able to say, ‘You may not hear music the way I do, but you can still experience it, feel it and love it.’ And that is what makes this opportunity so exciting to me.”
In addition to the Masterworks concerts, students at the Ohio School for the Deaf will also be able to enjoy Beethoven’s music through WCO’s outreach program Resonant: A Multisensory Music Project. Haptic vests will be available for students to wear during WCO’s April 2027 performance of the first movement of Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony in the auditorium at the Ohio State School for the Blind.
A light show designed by Lightware Labs, a Dallas-based creative video projection mapping company owned and operated by Camron and Courtney Ware, will be performed in real time while the orchestra plays.
“I kind of say that I play my computer as an instrument,” Courtney Ware said. “It’s essentially like I’m playing with the orchestra.”
Students also will have the chance to meet the WCO musicians, touch and feel the vibrations of musical instruments and, with the aid of an ASL interpreter, learn about Beethoven’s challenges and extraordinary achievements.
Progressive hearing loss and, eventually, total deafness challenged Beethoven during the years when he composed some of his most enduring music. The orchestra’s 2026-27 Masterworks series will showcase three of Beethoven’s symphonies from those years, including his Seventh Symphony on the Nov. 8 season-opening concert, alongside Beethoven-inspired works by diverse contemporary composers Unsuk Chin, Carlos Simon and Richard Danielpour.
“We’re going to focus on those staple pieces,” Clark said, “but we’re also going to include living composers from different backgrounds, something that’s very dear to the Worthington Chamber Orchestra.”
Disclosure: Jennifer Hambrick serves on the board of the Worthington Chamber Orchestra.
