Moonlight Sonata: Deafness In Three Movements

The story begins with Jonas’ first years of life going deaf, undergoing surgery for cochlear implants, and then discovering a newfound world of hearing — and music. When Jonas turns eleven, he has a cochlear implant and can choose when to be deaf and when not to be. He is struggling to learn the first movement of the “Moonlight Sonata,” an anguished composition Beethoven wrote when he began going deaf. Jonas’s teacher, Colleen, guides us through Beethoven’s state of mind at the time of writing the piece. Meanwhile, Jonas’ grandparents, Paul and Sally, who have been deaf for nearly 80 years, watch their grandson learn to play piano and feel the gulf that lies between them. As Jonas delves deeper into Beethoven’s sonata, the story becomes an intergenerational, inter-era tale of deafness.