Roll Over Beethoven – New Deaf Composer!
Deaf composer Lloyd Coleman is taking the world of classical music by storm!
Just imagine. Your son is born not only deaf but partially sighted. Obviously, you’re heartbroken. You just hope that somehow, with your help, he’ll have a decent life, that his handicaps will not be insurmountable.
Seventeen years go by, and not only has your son managed to live a full and enriched life, he’s being hailed as a modern-day Beethoven – a performer and composer of exquisite classical music and an accomplished conductor, too.
Surely this must be fiction. But no, this is how life, so far, has panned out for Julie Coleman’s son, Lloyd.
The story of how this schoolboy reached superstar status in the world of classical music is extraordinary.
Yet, when his devastated parents were told that their baby son was chronically disabled, they could never have dreamt that he would emerge as one of the most remarkable young musicians of his time.
‘I remember so clearly the moment the doctors told me Lloyd was both partially blind and deaf,’ says Julie. ‘I was absolutely devastated. It was as if all the air had left my body. I thought, “What on earth is life going to hold for him now?”
‘It was a moment of total despair. Never in a million years did I ever imagine that Lloyd would become a composer and a conductor.
‘But, when he was just seven years old, he announced one day, “Mummy, my dream is to play in the Royal Albert Hall.” Now, I’ve seen him play there three times and, of course, each time I’ve just wept with pride because it has reminded me what an incredible fighter he is.’
Lloyd was born in May 1992, the second son of Robert, an IT manager, and Julie, a nursery nurse. His brother, Gareth, was 19 months old, and the family lived in a modest home in Bridgend, south Wales.
‘The music just comes to me like a tap that I can’t switch off’
There was nothing exceptional about the new arrival, save for a shock of white blonde hair – an early sign that Lloyd was albino. But, at just eight weeks old, he was struck down with suspected viral meningitis.
