A girl born inaudible represented Russia at the International Music Competition

According to the results of the V International Beats of Cochlea Music Festival, which took place in Warsaw, 12-year-old Petersburger Ilona Pashkevich became one of the top 10 musicians from around the world.

In total, more than 300 applications from Australia, the USA, Mexico, Spain, Denmark, Georgia, the Philippines, Canada, Poland, Kazakhstan and other countries were submitted to the competition. The jury included well-known Polish and world musicians. At the audition, Ilona played the piano “Italian Polka” by S. V. Rachmaninov and received the highest marks for her play.

On July 10, Ilona Pashkevich, a girl with total hearing loss, performed at the festival’s gala concert in the Palalladium (Warsaw) concert hall, among the top 10 finalists of the Beats of Cochlear festival. She became the only representative of Russia to qualify for the finals.

The fact that Ilona does not hear anything at all her mother learned immediately after her birth. Hearing aids did not help. To return the girl to the world of sounds at the age of 4, Ilona underwent an operation on cochlear implantation at the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Ear, Throat, Nose and Speech, and at the age of 6, a cochlear implant was placed on the second ear.

Today, Ilona does not just hear and speak well, she studies at a secondary school, her favorite subjects are mathematics and English. And, of course, music takes a lot of time. Most of all, Ilona loves jazz. In 2017, at the Magic Symphony festival in St. Petersburg, she played jazz with the orchestra of the famous jazz musician and composer David Goloshchekin. The victory at the international music festival in Poland was the next step in the musical career of an unusual pianist.