The first time Davide Santacolomba heard crystal glasses clinking for a toast, he was fascinated and amazed. He was intrigued by that sound of celebration, and surprised because he did not think that two clinking glasses would create a sound. Before he was fitted with a cochlear implant, Davide could not hear sounds like the wind blowing, the birds’ chirping or many other high frequency sounds. Yes, this native son of Palermo, now 31, is a pianist by profession, and classical concertizes all over World. How distant it seemed the day when, as age of 8, he was diagnosed with a severe sensorineural hearing disability. ‘’My family and I were guests of my family’s friend, who played Are You Sleeping, Brother John on the piano to amuse me. Left alone in the room, I desperately tried to reproduce that song, even though I could only partially hear the melody. And, I don’t know how, but I did it.” Thus, a great love between Davide and music was born. After starting private piano lessons at the age of 13, the Conservatory was the next goal toward continuing his studies. However, a teacher revealed a big obstacle to him: ‘’You’re deaf, which means you will not be able to play piano at the professional level.’’ ‘’Beethoven had an extraordinary sense of absolute pitch, but he lost his hearing later in life and he remembered certain sounds’’, Davide says. ‘’I had never heard them. My situation was unique, and failing the entrance exams would have prevented me from being admitted to the conservatory’’. Nevertheless, he decided to prepare for the entrance exams, and…he was admitted. Giovanna De Gregorio was the only piano teacher who accepted the challenge and trained him to prepare for the pre-conservatory diploma (he scored the highest marks). She said to both mother and son: my expectations aren’t many, but even much more. They were many years of hard work, during which he and his teacher also tried a novel and unique strategy; musical passages normally played in the higher register which he could not hear was transposed one or two octaves lower. “I study in the lower register everything that must be played in the upper register. Then, through a process of conseguential logic, starting from the reference of low sounds, you can be able to imagine what the same effect is in the higher register’’. So imagination is the peculiar element of this technique, or “the ear of the mind”, as Davide defines it. Another strategy that Davide uses is the feedback of the people who listen to him: his teachers, his colleagues, but also his friends who are not musicians and the audience at his concerts. ‘’When others tell me that I play too loud, I notice that my muscles stiffen, so I just need to refer to a muscular sensation to control the sound’’ admits Davide. The last element is the enhancement of the emotion and the feelings that this pianist pours on the keys in each of his performances: ‘’We have always tried, my teachers and I, to focus especially on the emotional intentions that the music itself suggests and to develop my ability to sense and radiate those emotions,” concludes the maestro. ‘’This boy is a miracle,’’ whispered his attentive and irreplaceable teacher, Giovanna De Gregorio. When the hearing in both ears were too deteriorated, almost all lost, at the age of 26, he underwent cochlear implant surgery, not knowing what the outcome would be. ‘’I was afraid, but I had to go ahead’’, says Davide.  After receiving his cochlear implant, he discovered sounds he never heard before: whispers, the blowing wind and even the higher notes of the piano. But additional training is always required to accumulate new auditory experiences in both music and speech. Davide admits that ‘’even though hearing music today is much better compared to pre-implantation, I only hear part of the higher notes, and not always in a well-defined way in any case.” He adds that “When I play fast I have difficulty in receiving every single note. Last but not least, I also have difficulty in hearing the notes in the middle of the piano because of the strong distortion emanating from my acoustic hearing aid and implant both. But that’s okay.’’ Davide met the acclaimed pianist and pedagogue Anna Kravtchenko in a master class in Palermo and it was love at first sight. Because Madame Kravtchenko teaches at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland in Lugano, Davide competed and was selected over hundreds of other candidates to study with her. ‘’Lugano is a unique place in the world.”, Davide says. The experience ended in summer 2019, after four wonderful and exhausting years of study, ending with two masters degrees (one in piano performance and the other one in piano pedagogy). Davide adds: “One day, I want to settle in Sicily, where I return at least once a month. I love its beauty, decadence and the uniqueness of great and kind-hearted people, including my family and friends.’’ Davide has also played Chopin’s Polonaise Brillante op.22 in Poland with the Radio Orchestra of Poland. In doing so, Davide Santacolomba is first deaf musician with a cochlear implant in the world to have played with the orchestra—truly a remarkable achievement. ‘’I’ve had so many moments of discouragement and despair in my life,” the renowned pianist says, “and I’ve often found myself wanting to give up music, but my family, my teachers and the audience at my concerts have constantly urged me not to stop believing in myself.  Having gotten to this point, I would like say to others: Never stop believing and chasing your dreams, because if you really want something and are willing to do everything to get there, sooner or later, the dream will become a reality.”