The Road to Carnegie Hall feat. Matt Deller | Hard of Hearing Choir Leader

Blaise Delfino: 0:06

You're tuned into the hearing matters podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a growing national epidemic; hearing loss. Before we kick this episode off, a special thank you to our partners Oticon, Life changing technology, Sonic, every day sounds better, Starkey, hearing technologies, hear better, live better, Redux, faster, dryer smarter verified. On this episode, we are so excited to welcome Matt Deller. He is the founder and director of the sounds of the Southwest Singers and was a finalist in the 2020 focus on people awards. He is also from sunny Arizona. Matt Deller, welcome to the Hearing Matters Podcast.

Matt Deller: 1:05

Thank you very much, glad to be here.

Blaise Delfino: 1:07

It is such a pleasure to have you on the show. Matt, you are an accomplished singer, musician. What can't you do? Truly, because reading your biography, my gosh, it is incredible. What inspired you to pursue a career in music, did you always know you wanted to be a singer? Share with us your journey.

Matt Deller: 1:29

Well it started when I was very young. I love exposure to music from my dad, who was a singer himself. Professional singer, singing in a 12 boys men's group. And so at a very early age, I was exposed to the stage then had rehearsals of my mom. And I was probably too young to be in the room so I went off to the side, you know, but I really enjoyed the music and it grew on me and I started playing the piano. And my parents realized they've got to get this kid some music lessons. So I started learning piano. And that obviously helped a lot of as a pianist. And I also played percussion as well. So I've got some background and play and as well as singing. So I grew up with that atmosphere. And my father travel did a lot of music. He had a few albums with his groups and, and I grew up with that in my house. And so I think that really inspired me to become a musician and singer.

Blaise Delfino: 2:22

We were discussing before we started this episode that your hearing loss was progressive, you had measles when you were a child. And over time your hearing has progressively declined growing up in a household that emphasize the importance of music and playing music. How did this onset of hearing loss affect? Or really it didn't affect you, in terms of starting a career in music?

Matt Deller: 2:52

That's a really good question. Because I think I think I lay the responsibility on my parents for that, because they made sure that it didn't stop what I wanted to do. I think the whole idea was turning a disability into an ability for men. They wanted to see things happen for me, and they didn't want anything to stop me you don't want to normal school, went through college, you know, everything, they made sure that the music was important part of my life once they realized that I wanted to be involved in music. So they just latched on to that make sure I didn't have anything hold me back sent me off the cab. I wondered if they just wanted to get me out of the house. But you know, what they can't and, and just do all kinds of things like that. So I really enjoyed that a lot. I think that was a big part of it, their influence on me. And making sure that when I was in school than I sat in front of the class that I learned everything I could and it was a great experience.

Blaise Delfino: 3:49

Matt, how have you turned your impairment into an advantage? Because we're not even diving yet into the meat and potatoes of all that you've accomplished in what you do on a daily basis. And this needs to be emphasized because for our listeners tuned in, Matt is the perfect example of turning an impairment into an advantage. So how have you done this?

Matt Deller: 4:13

Well, it's I think it's very interesting. I kind of learned as I went along. And when I started directing, I found that if I emphasize the things that maybe I'm weak at making it a strength to the choir, things will be better, for instance, annunciation when singers sing they, forget a lot a time you can't understand a word they're thinking a lot of the time and in my group, when you hear my group saying whether it's recorded whether in the room a fan, you understand every word because I tell them and then see a when you stay, you know, speak distinctly just that you're trying to get me to hear you. And that's very important. If you're speaking to me. You want to enunciate, sing that way, everyone syncs together. So there's a definite advantage. The other advantage is when I'm watching my singers and i do classily, because I have to memorize music. So I'm always watching as I'm directing. If the mouths are off, I know they're off. So if I don't pick it up with my hearing, I pick it up with my sight. So that's the advice I would give every musician, whether they're hearing impaired or not, is always be watching your singers, because you pick up visual cues that are more important in many ways than hearing, in my opinion, that can tell us sections that can tell for certain singers off, I won't pick on that certain car when I stopped the choir, I'll have the whole section reverse over again, but But you know, you can get really detailed if you want to. But I think that's a definite advantage.

Blaise Delfino: 5:40

Matt, you had previously mentioned that when you are directing, you're not only listening to the voices, but you're watching the mouths of the singers, you founded a group called the sounds of South West Singers, what inspired you to start this group, and I believe your group has traveled pretty extensively, and you've performed in a lot of really cool places, for lack of a better term.

Matt Deller: 6:08

We've, we really have we've been very, we've been blessed with great travel and good time, we started the group in 2010. And I say we because it was founded by both my wife and myself, my wife, Leanne, to us founded the group together because we were looking for an opportunity to branch out not just to be able to sing sacred music, but be able to enjoy Broadway, jazz, pop, patriotic, Christmas music. And the music you can't really sing in a church environment. But our core belief of 35 singers at that time were made up of church choir members who wanted to jump take advantage of a different opportunity, staying. And so we started as an eye, we were under the umbrella of another group, a local group that did work with children. And so we were able to join together with that group for several years under their umbrella. And then we formed our own nonprofit. And so we've been doing this for 11 years now grant some 35 to about 150 Singers.

Blaise Delfino: 7:07

Matt, you have led talented singers to concert halls in the US and abroad. What does a choir rehearsal look like?

Matt Deller: 7:18

That's a lot of fun. Well, first of all, that is the word we describe, it's fun to come in, you have a great time you leave your problems at the door, kind of like the chairs, bollard, everybody walks in and everybody says a name. And there's really ins and let me sit down and get to business. And I think I keep it moving. I keep it moving. And we have a good time. But we did focus on the important things about singing. And we spend a lot of time on things that I want to spend on articulation and enunciation. Like I mentioned before, the shaping of the sound. Now my percussion background has helped me a lot. So we spent a lot of time on rhythms, a lot of timeline, making sure this sound is just so cuz, you know, I want to take what I know about music and sound and projected onto my singers in any way I can. So it's it's important that as a hearing impaired person in a situation like that, to be able to get feedback and hear and understand one of the ways I do that is I encourage my singers to come up to me after rehearsal, email me after rehearsal with this and need a question rather than the raise of the hand and be trying to gear and spending time it becomes a waste of time. So what I've done is I've created that atmosphere of you can absolutely access me, but do it by email or by questions after rehearsal. And they know that the next verse I picked right back up, where we left off, let them know, the singers know what the problem is and how we can fix it saw. So works very well. It's a great relationship with the singers.

Blaise Delfino: 8:49

Matt, I'm curious to know, what are some vocal warm ups that you implement with your choir?

Matt Deller: 8:57

Well, that's pretty interesting. And I did ask that because I focus a lot on the same sounds that I have from it. Firstly, and I think that I'm taking that my negative, you might say, issues, turning them into positives, by making sure my singer sings for instance, the word peace ends with that s sound. I want the S sound to be specific, right on the cut off. I don't want to sound like there's a bunch of snakes in the room. I want it to be clear, clean. So what do warm ups that way, we'll sing the word, test my sedima until it's perfect. That's an exam. We do a lot of pitch matching. I'll have the pianist a couple pitches at the singers find pitches. I work on intervals. I work on all the things that involve the ear and remembering that yeah, it may be a shortcoming for me in some senses. But I also have perfect pitch, which really it helps situations a lot. I've been gifted with that. Thank goodness, right? I mean, not every musician is going to have perfect pitch. But if they got relative pitch and they have an idea of where that middle C is on that piano, it was help them teach vocally the big ribs a lot better. And if they know what it says,

Blaise Delfino: 10:06

Matt, you have perfect pitch and you present with a profound hearing loss. First of all, for our listeners tuned in, what does perfect pitch mean? And why is this really something to be proud of and excited about, especially being someone who has that profound hearing loss because that is so cool, a big deal, awesome.

Matt Deller: 10:30

I just a imagine , it is a big deal. And I'm very, very lucky in that regard. I think God gets me in that sense that I'm able to find the pitches and hang on to them, I think, perfect pitch, the definition of bet compared to a call relative pitch with perfect pitches, you're able to instantly identify a pitch, and you don't have to find another one to get to it. For instance, if you play a chord to me, I will be able to tell you exactly what that point is, I know where that that's sharps and flats are and over the natural law, I can tell you whether it's a minor six, a major seven, and so on and so forth, I can tell you what, good study with a notice without having to think without having calm, that kind of thing. And if we're in a situation where I'm, I don't have a pianist with me, and I need that middle C note to start out of sign, I can come that note and my choir can stay after listening to my notes. So I'm able to find that which is lessening, if you're in a situation, we were in Salzburg, once around a big fountain in Salzburg. And a composer wanted me to get a pitch. He wanted an E. So I needed he I need to start a sign you've got Matt, give me any. So I sang the year that was just right. And we started and I was really glad I got to write it did I mess around on Salzburg? Not now you know, that somehow mirror. So that's an example of our perfect pitch can out. And even relative pitch, even having a basic knowledge of what's going on, or notes can help carry it impaired by directress musicians,

Blaise Delfino: 12:01

You were diagnosed with hearing loss at a young age, when you were first fit with hearing aids. What was that new hearing world like for you? And how did this sort of influence your singing?

Matt Deller: 12:16

Well, that's a very good question. Because I'm a good fit back to my young years. It's a very long time ago. But I can tell you, it was very different for me. I'm in a hearing aid and school and this is in the mid 60s, wearing a hearing aid aid. Obviously, there was some attention called to it I didn't let it bother me at off. I was very fond about it. I wasn't embarrassed. But I think I took advantage of the fact that now things are a little more clear to me. And not only was I reading lips constantly, but now I could sort of start to hear sound. They one of the most embarrassing things for me if I want to look back at it was maybe the mispronunciation of words because you expect a word to be a certain pronunciation. And it's not. And you think you read it as a certain word, but when you say it, it's not quite right. So most of the things I've discovered over the years is I've become humble and realize I'm not going to be able to pronounce every single word. And my wife is really good at correcting me too. But with hearing aids gone, it's going up it just sort of beat evolved and as scary as technology got better, I've started hearing better and being involved in music groups just became a great world Sunday just opened right up.

Blaise Delfino: 13:22

Now, Matt, you mentioned technology. And you were recently upgraded to the Oticon exceed behind the ear hearing aid. We fit our patients with Oticon. Of course we are multi brand here at audiology services, but we fit Oticon and they have incredible products and you were actually a finalist for the 2020 focus on people awards. Tell us a little bit about the technology you wear and how it has positively influence your hearing world.

Matt Deller: 13:57

I could tell you a lot about it. But I walked go on for an hour and a half. I didn't know my audiologist was and I can't pronounce that word audiologist Dan Trimble Metro here and up here in Glendale. Very, very helpful for me. He's been documents me for a long time. So he'd been looking for it every day that would work for me. And when the lesser power hearing aids came out of all decline, not the exceed but the old band and so on. He was looking or waiting for the exceed to come because he knew in his mind that will be a good hearing aid for me. And so he wanted me to try that here today. Once it came out when it finally did after months of that just the patient and Meagan Fraley, because I really wanted to find this hearing aid finally gotten in my years and wow, I can tell you right away the biggest difference was speech. And being able to discriminate speech was just a huge change. For me. reading lips have one thing but being able to plan to hear some sounds that I'd never heard before. That's a whole different ballgame. And with music The beauty of this is new hearing aids as I'm able to have the different settings that help me with music. And, you know, the first set is obviously to speech being in the best world about first speech goes. And then I have another setting which brings in the choir and speech. So I have kind of a combination of both, obviously, that there's still some speech should matter so that I can understand more clearly the spoken word, but also acquire, then there's an additional settings and more music, hide stays. But really what it does is it opens things up for me. So I'm able to hear the very best I can and whatever situation I'm in, if I'm standing on the, you know, the podium at Carnegie Hall, which I will be next year, we didn't talk about that. And we'll be at Carnegie Mellon, next year may 28 acquires coming to Carnegie Hall, I'm getting the opportunity to direct plan, I will need to have a certain set of lawmakers to open that right there. So I'm very excited about that. Be able to hear the orchestra flyer in the acoustics of the room, you know, so in rehearsal, you're going to be seeing me fiddling with my hair today, trying to find that right setting for me, and that's what the Oticon is doing for me, I really love it. And a wonderful journey so far about getting to know them still, it's something you can't do overnight, it takes time. And when I go in to get to my audiologist, we'll be changing settings, we'll be trying new things all the time. There's so many capability, you know, a lot of doors to walk into,

Blaise Delfino: 16:27

I'm really happy that you brought that up because it is a journey. Whenever you are fit with hearing aids. It is not a you know, once and done, this is where your hearing aids are programmed to. I'm so happy that you bring that up. Matt, when you mentioned directing at Carnegie Hall, you have directed in many well known halls. In fact, you had the opportunity to conduct a selection at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. Holy smokes. What was this experience like?

Matt Deller: 17:03

Wow, the talk a major goosebumps first of all, that obviously, was a big deal. But standing in Matt bass conducting music in that cathedral with 200. Sayers was a moment to remember for a lifetime, obviously, one of the most amazing things to have happen. And so being a fighter scrip during this hour of the Most Holy Church service ever, you know, was amazing. The song was sent a prayer of St. Francis. And from beginning to end, it was just surreal. It was just amazing for me.

Blaise Delfino: 17:39

Matt, I think what's really important is, first of all, you have accomplished so much as a musician, as a director. And I'm curious to know, what advice would you give to musicians who have hearing loss? And what advice would you give to younger musicians interested in a career in the music industry?

Matt Deller: 18:03

That's a really good question. Because I would love to receive some of that advice, five younger to help me out. But now that I've gotten where I am today, I feel like I could just dish it out and put my arm around people and help them out with this. Because I think the main thing is to have some confidence in your abilities. You know, just because you can't hear well does not mean, you can't stand up front of people and just have to know what your weaknesses are, and turn them into strengths. And if you don't do it, as for your strength, make it your singer strengths. And I think the whole key of what I mentioned earlier about turning disability into ability is really important here. So if you need accommodations, you just ask if you need help. Ask. That's so important. I think I think everyone is willing, if they know about your hearing impairment, which is kind of an issue for hearing impaired people at bay to just be totally open and honest about their hearing impairment, and not worry about what people think. I think it's going to be a very important thing in the world of music. let others know. At first I didn't want to, I didn't want other people to really know about it when I was younger, but now I'm just blurting it out, I'll say hi, how are you doing? Oh, by the way, I don't care well, just so you know, stick up a little maybe means your mouth so I can understand what you're saying please, kind of thing. You know, the patient's kicks in there, a little bit of it, maybe impatient, but I think it's important that you communicate that if you're down then it's a it's a disadvantage to you. I really believe that you doubt and I gotta say when I was younger, I was very shy about it. I didn't want to just tell everybody look, you know, I have a green in here. Look at this, you know, that wasn't that wasn't a focus but later on in life, I understood that if you don't tell others about a year and you're really at a disadvantage now on the other hand, if you do that, they will perhaps over in that ca perhaps shout at you. You know you get those names. They get a little mad That kind of page, then you get to educate the education parts great for me, I got to take 100 people in a room, I had to speak to someone who's hearing impaired. I just reached 100 people, you know, that's fantastic. Say, look, you don't have to yell. You don't have to shout, speak in a normal voice and speak the stately, move your lips. And so when I say that everybody's Oh, thank you, oh, that's how we do. So I get somebody coming up to me. And they're actually doing that. That's a wonderful day. It's called, you've got to let people know what's going on. If you're hearing impaired, don't be shy. Use your disability become an ability, let your company know that you can't hear well, you'll find that your accompanist can help you in so many ways that you may not be aware, you can say, You know what, tell me if they're off, I want to know, and I'm sunder telling you and you get that feedback for from your happiness. So it's a positive, everybody's talking to each other, you know. So that's really a definite advantage of having a great accompanist who understands your class. The people around you understand your hearing loss and all they want to do is see you be a better person and that makes them better singers. All works.

Blaise Delfino: 21:12

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs. Today, we had Matt Deller, founder and director of the sounds of the Southwest singers, and a finalist in the 2020 focus on people awards. He is from Sun City, Arizona. And for more information about Matt Deller and the sounds of the Southwest singers, click the link in these show notes. And until next time, hear life's story