A small town had a choir of nine singers, and they were out of tune and out of time. Three weeks before the regional choir festival, the old conductor retired. The town sent Ms. Ferro, a woman of forty.
On the first night she wrote on the board: "I am deaf. I will not hear you. You will have to watch me." Then she made them take off their shoes and stand on the wooden stage. She felt the beat through the floor, and she taught them to feel it too. She taught them to watch her hands and her breathing.
They hated it for a week, and then something changed. They began to sing together, breathing together.
On the night of the festival there were four hundred people in the hall. The pianist had fallen ill, so the nine had no instrument. Ms. Ferro lifted her hands, and they breathed in at the same moment and sang.
In the back row, twelve deaf children held balloons to feel the music. When the song ended, they stood and waved their hands in the air, the way deaf people applaud.
