RuSH hour crowds jostle for position on the jos underground train platform. A slight girl, looking younger than her seventeen years, was nervous yet excited as she felt the vibrations of the approaching train. It was her first day at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London$/$and daunting enough for any teenager fresh from a Scottish farm. But this aspiring musician faced a bigger challenge than most: she was profoundly deaf. Evelyn Glennie's loss of hearing had been gradual. Her mother remembers noticing something was wrong when the eight$-$year$-$old Evelyn was waiting to play the piano. "They called her name and she didn't move. I suddenly realised she hadn't heard," says Isabel Glennie For quite a while Evelyn managed to conceal her growing deafness from friends and teachers But by the time she was eleven her marks had deteriorated and her headmistress urged her parents to take her to aquestion answer