During Eurosonic/Noorderslag, more than 4000 professionals from the music industry come to Groningen. I moderated the panel at EPIC which focussed on tinnitus, organized by Open-House.
The Sound Of Silence | Dealing with hearing loss in the music industry
(15.00 – 16.00, 15 January 2017)
A high-pitched sound even though your surroundings are completely mute, a continuous humming that never seems to fade, individual sounds that drop like a bomb. When you suffer from tinnitus, it affects how you experience sound as a musician and as an entertainment professional. “There is nothing you can do about it and you just have to learn to live with it,” is the usual answer for people who’ve experienced these symptoms. But is it true? What are the possibilities for a musician to keep on playing even though you suffer with tinnitus? Are there ways to prevent it? During this panel we discuss the possibilities and how increasing knowledge might help a younger generation of musicians and entertainment professionals.
Let me introduce the diverse, but therefor very interesting panel:
Mark Thur, sound engineer, opened the panel with a soundscape of different forms of tinnitus, simulated from real people. Which gave the audience a wake-up call.
Arno Lieftink – Psychologist from audio logic centre Erasmus MC and UMC.
Arno’s point of view is that of a professor in science, he knows what happens in your head and how that may affect you.
Roel Verberk – Producer and Engineer.
Roel’s a music professional and can talk about how it affects his work and what he sees in the music industry.
Steve Harrison – One of the founders of Tinnitus Hub, an international platform to raise more awareness for tinnitus.
Steve talked about the importance of working together and give tinnitus an international stage.
Jorg Land – Founder of Tinnitracks, an app that works with your own music to make tinnitus more bearable.
Jorg talked about finding possibilities and maybe even a cure using modern day technology.
Amber Roner 