Memphis Business Journal
October 28, 2005, pages 25-36
Delightful Gloria
Soprano with Williams Syndrome one of stars at Opera Memphis
By Andria Lisle
When the curtain rises on Opera Memphis’ production of Camille Saint-Saens’ Samson & Dalila this Saturday night, artistic director Michael Ching hopes that the audience won’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
Gloria has Williams Syndrome. She can’t balance a checkbook or live on her own. Her IQ, says her father, Dr. Howard Lenhoff, is 55. But Gloria has perfect pitch, and she has memorized a repertoire of more than 2,000 songs in 30 different languages. From Beatles to Bach, Elvis Presley to Macedonian folk music – once she’s heard a song, she can commit it to memory and deliver a note-for-note rendition of it years later.
“We realized what she could do when she was eleven,” says Dr. Lenhoff, “but she was born before Williams Syndrome was even known. She was diagnosed with oxygen deficiency, and doctors made typical excuses until she was 34, when the movie Bravo, Gloria came out. We got letters from medical doctors that diagnosed her, but at the time, we said, ‘So what? Who cares?’”
Then other parents began contacting him. Their children also had Williams Syndrome, and they, too, had perfect pitch. A researcher with a PhD in biology, Dr. Lenhoff began studying music perception. In the mid-1990s, he helped in establishing a summer music camp for adults with disabilities in Lenox, Massachusetts, at the Tanglewood Music Center. It drew national attention – National Public Radio, 60 Minutes and Nightline did segments on the camp, and, a few years later, Dr. Lenhoff helped found the Berkshire Hills Music Academy in central Massachusetts.
Early next year, John Hopkins University Press will publish a book on Dr. Lenhoff’s research on Williams Syndrome, which he co-edited with two MDs. He and his wife have dedicated their lives to their eldest child, even as her dependence on them is lessening.
“Our biggest concern was, what will happen with Gloria after we die,” Dr. Lenhoff explains.
Through a friend, he learned about the Baddour Center in Senatobia, Mississippi. Opened in 1978, the residential community for adults with minor and moderate mental handicaps has 172 residents living on its 120-acre campus today. People with disabilities are able to assert their independence in personalized living spaces, earn an income with jobs with corporations like FedEx and Conwood, and channel their artistic abilities via the center’s Expressive Arts Department.
Gloria, says Dr. Lenhoff, jumped at the opportunity to become a resident. “The problem was us letting go,” he laughs. “She calls the Baddour Center home now.”
Cathi Johnson, director of development and public relations, says that four of the Baddour Center’s residents have Williams Syndrome. “This is a place where people who cannot live on their own can lead happy, challenged lives,” she notes.
Johnson says that Gloria’s Opera Memphis debut was a few years in the making. “I’d sent the opera a few articles about Gloria, but I wasn’t reaching the right person,” she says. “So then Dr. Lenhoff and Gloria showed up at their door.”
“I was taking her to a cantorial lesson, and decided to stop in,” Dr. Lenhoff recalls. “We bumped into Michael Ching, and he said, ‘Let’s get Gloria in here.’”
Ching immediately recognized an incredible opportunity. “I’m a big fan of Oliver Sacks, and I’ve always been fascinated by the way the mind works. Meeting this real live person with this unique condition, my first reactions were joy and fascination. Gloria’s one of the most cheerful people I’ve ever met.”
“But it was one thing to meet someone like this,” Ching cautions, “and another thing to give her the chance to sing with the opera. I had to size up a lot of things. We had to make sure she could make it to all the rehearsals, and Dr. Lenhoff was fairly concerned that she wouldn’t keep in line.”
“We decided to put her in Samson & Dalila, because we thought, wouldn’t it have been possible that someone in Biblical times might have had this condition? She could texture the community. We asked Sharon Dobbins, another chorus member, to mentor her.”
“She learned the music in steps,” Dr. Lenhoff adds. “She can get the melody between two or three hearings, but a paragraph of lyrics might take her an hour. By July, she had everything memorized.”
“The truth of the matter is,” Ching maintains, “is that Gloria hasn’t had to be treated uniquely. She’s indistinguishable from the rest of the ensemble. We always like to stretch opera and find different ways for unusual partnerships, but it’s not every day that a gift like Gloria comes across the doorstep.”
“With this particular instance, the arts allow Gloria to shed her disability and metamorphose into a full-fledged artist,” he concludes. “She has an extraordinary memory, a great gift for languages, and a good, strong voice. As far as I’m concerned, she could perform in any opera – she’s that good.”
