Hearing Loss

Evie Waddell is a Gaelic and Scots singer and fiddler hailing from Stirlingshire. As a deaf musician, Evie hopes to raise awareness of the many talented hard-of-hearing and deaf musicians out there and weaves BSL seamlessly into her performances. Her visual EP Cluich! offers an immersive audio-visual experience with three distinct Gaelic songs, connecting the deaf community with Gaelic and Scottish identity and heritage. Evie joins Anna to talk about the EP and her experience as a deaf musician.

According to a study carried out by the Hearing Health Foundation (USA), musicians are four times more likely to develop noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) and 57 per cent more likely to develop tinnitus. Another survey by UK charity Help Musicians found that 40 per cent of professional musicians across a range of genres have experienced some type of hearing loss as a direct result of their work. Now an audiologist, fiddler and former Young Trad champion, Shona Mooney joins Anna to explore the issue of noise-induced hearing loss for musicians and live music lovers alike. Musician Seth Tinsley joins the discussion to share his experience of NIHL as a result of his work.