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By Casey Musarra
Ithaca College senior Nate Tao, a music major, belts out a solo during Ithacapella’s concert last year. His parents sit front row center, but they don’t hear his melodious voice take hold of the rest of the audience.
Anni and Mark Tao are both deaf. They were born in Taiwan where they received a small pox vaccine that left both of them with hearing loss. While neither of Nate Tao’s parents can hear, he said they have still played a major part in his music career.
“My parents haven’t directly influenced me in the way that when they hear my music they say, ‘Oh, I liked that’ or ‘I didn’t like this,’” Nate Tao said. “It’s more like they encouraged us to really get involved early.”
Nate Tao said his parents’ condition has not greatly affected the way he communicates with his parents. He learned American Sign Language at a young age and uses that when he’s with them. When he’s away from home, he said it’s not much different than any other college student — he uses text messaging, e-mail and other virtual ways to talk to his parents.
“That’s just all I’ve ever known so I’m just used to that,” he said.
Nate Tao has combined his knowledge of American Sign Language and his singing abilities to his advantage when performing.
“It’s kind of hard, but it definitely works,” he said. “It’s a great way to connect two worlds, so to speak.”
Anni and Mark Tao said though they are unable to actually hear, they enjoy attending concerts and seeing Nate Tao on stage. They said they often feel an emotional reaction to the vibrations as well.
“Singing isn’t just about hearing,” Mark Tao said. “It’s about feeling too.”
Nate Tao began singing when he was in middle school, but even before that, his grandmother pushed him and his siblings to play the piano.
“My older brother and sister both started playing the piano when I was like 5 or 6 and I said, ‘I want to do that too.’ I started taking lessons for about seven years then after a while something wasn’t clicking, so I decided to stop.”
Nate Tao originally came to the college as a vocal performance major, but decided to switch, which allowed him to graduate a full year early in May 2010 instead of May 2011.
“[Vocal performance is] very operatic and it wasn’t really my thing, so I switched,” Nate Tao said. “I’m still a music major, but just not performance-wise. I decided to do that because I kind of want to get out and do music.”
Nate Tao gave up the opportunity to appear on NBC’s hit new show, The Sing Off, in order to stay in school and finish his degree.
“I would actually not be here right now,” Nate Tao said. “It would’ve been from Thanksgiving until winter break taping in Los Angeles. One of my teachers wasn’t very excited about it so I decided to just stay and finish school.”
Mark and Anni Tao both said they were glad their son decided to stay in school.
“As much as we’d like to see [Nate] succeed in his music career, it’s always good to have something to fall back on,” Mark Tao said. “I definitely have a lot of confidence in his ability as a performer, but education is still our primary concern.”
Anni Tao said when she can’t make it to Nate Tao’s concerts, she likes to watch his YouTube videos and blast the music.
“There are definitely times that I wish I could hear his voice, especially when I see how much the audience loves him,” Anni Tao said. “It’s something I think about now more than ever because of how real his music career is turning out to be.”
Nate Tao said there have been times during his performances when he wished his parents could hear, but he said that’s not the most important thing.
“There’s kind of a lost connection because you want to tell them, ‘Oh, I sang this high note’ or ‘I sang this solo,’” he said. “They don’t really understand it because they can’t hear it, so it’s kind of lost in translation. But we’re all happy and we’re really lucky.”
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