Pausing
slightly to run through the catalog of 2,000 songs
stored in her brain, the 49-year-old settled on a
favorite: Elvis Presley's Don't Be Cruel.
During the recent performance in her parents' Oxford
living room, Lenhoff, a lyric soprano, squeezed out
original arrangements to accompany her renditions of
songs ranging from Presley's Blue Suede Shoes to Verdi's
Ave Maria — all with perfect pitch.
"It's the best thing that God gave me," Lenhoff said
about her musical talents. "Some people don't realize
what other handicapped people can do."
With an IQ of 55, Lenhoff can't read music and
struggles with crossing the street. She has Williams
Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes medical
and developmental problems. But despite — or because of
— her disability, Lenhoff has an uncanny talent for
music, which enables her to sing in 30 languages,
including Japanese, Arabic and Hebrew. She has a
particular affinity for religious music, and often sings
in churches and synagogues.
Though Lenhoff's parents always knew she had some
form of mental retardation — albeit a type that endowed
her with an extraordinary musical ability — they hadn't
heard of Williams Syndrome until their daughter, then
35, was featured in the PBS documentary Bravo Gloria.
After the broadcast, Howard and Sylvia Lenhoff got
calls from parents whose children shared most of their
daughter's attributes: limited intelligence, difficulty
with spatial relationships, and physical traits such as
upturned noses, broad mouths and full lips.
Later, Howard Lenhoff, a biochemist and professor
emeritus from the University of California at Irvine,
met other families with Williams Syndrome children.
"I went to a picnic and saw kids who looked like
Gloria," he said.
Lenhoff said little research has been done about
Williams Syndrome, which occurs in one out of every
20,000 births. The condition was discovered in 1961 by a
cardiologist and is caused by missing genes on the
seventh chromosome. The missing genes affect mental and
physical development.
But perhaps most striking, Lenhoff later observed,
was that many Williams Syndrome children seemed to have
a knack for music.
Because he found little interest among scientists for
studying the musical abilities of people with Williams
Syndrome, Lenhoff said he decided to research the
subject himself.
He has published
a number of articles about Williams Syndrome, including
a 2001 study in the academic journal, Music Perception,
that examines the incidence of absolute pitch.
Absolute — or perfect — pitch is the capacity to
recognize, name and produce the pitch of a musical note
without a reference pitch.
The study raised the possibility that Williams people
had a higher incidence of absolute pitch than the
general population.
"Her musical retrieval is just amazing," said Sandra
Meyer, an associate professor of music and coordinator
of music theory at Oklahoma Baptist University in
Shawnee.
Meyer provided the piano accompaniment for Gloria
Lenhoff's 2003 CD, Religious Classics for Soprano (MMO
Music Group).
The pair met in 2000 when Lenhoff sang at a recital
at Oklahoma Baptist University.
"There was just this kind of instant rapport with
Gloria and me," Meyer said. "Williams Syndrome people
are already really easy to love."
Indeed, people with the condition are extremely
friendly and sensitive.
University of Mississippi assistant professor of
voice Gregory Rike said he knew nothing about Williams
Syndrome until Howard Lenhoff approached him about
giving his daughter voice lessons.
"I was apprehensive at first about how I should go
about teaching her," said Rike, who also heads the
university's vocal pedagogy doctoral program.
But Rike soon became accustomed to working with a
student who can't read music. He said Lenhoff learns
songs by listening to recordings or live renditions.
Then she repeats what she's heard.
During lessons, Rike helps Lenhoff with technical
skills such as her breathing, posture and head position.
"If you see her perform on stage she is a totally
different person than in a studio," he said. "She
relates to the audience and is really able to touch
people."
But despite Lenhoff's talents, her father said her
career hasn't moved far beyond "the disability circuit"
of mostly benefit concerts.
"Gloria should be able to make a living with her
music," he said.
Still, she has been a guest soloist with the San
Diego Master Chorale and Orchestra, has sung with lead
mezzo-sopranos of the Los Angeles Opera and the Boston
Lyric Opera, and has sung with operas in New York,
Colorado and Washington, D.C.
But the travel can be taxing for the Lenhoffs, now in
their 70s, who relocated from California to Mississippi
in 2001 when their daughter moved into the Baddour
Center, a residential community of mentally retarded
people in Senatobia.
As Lenhoff's parents age, the center provides a
secure place for her to live.
"We're trying to let go," Sylvia Lenhoff said.
View
Our Guestbook
