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[Voice of America jingle]

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[concrete music produced by the objects shown]

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[Peter Fedynsky] This clashing and crashing percussion music is the work of Jay Alan Zimmerman,

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a New York composer with significant hearing loss who has been dubbed "Broadway's Beethoven."

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The piece, entitled "Roboticus," is about a man who upgrades his natural body

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with artificial parts to become a robot.

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[Jay Alan Zimmermann] Yes, that's the situation I am facing: Do I get a cochlear implant and become a bionic man?

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If it gave me better than normal hearing, I would grab it,

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[sings vocals: Woo-eeee]

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Zimmerman has no diagnosis for the condition

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that turned his world into a muddle of sound more than 10 years ago.

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He supplements that muddle through lip reading. He also relies on light as a complement to his music.

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Zimmerman says his hearing problem may involve damage

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to the minute sensors in the ear known as hair cells

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that transmit audio signals to the brain.

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[music]

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Though the electronic device known as a cochlear implant improves hearing,

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it does not allow for appreciation of music or all of the richness of sound.

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Zimmerman prefers to wait for scientists to find a way of regenerating hair cells.

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Researchers gained a valuable insight from an unexpected source.

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[Hens cackling]

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Dr. Mark Warchol of the Washington University School of Medicine explains

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what chickens have brought to hearing research.

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[Mark Warchol] The avian inner ear has this remarkable ability to regenerate sensory receptors after injury,

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So, Deafening a bird, for example, turns out to be a very temporary thing.

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Within several weeks, all of the dead sensory cells, damaged sensory cells, will be replaced by new cells.

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[Peter Fedynsky] Unlike chickens, humans cannot replace sensory cells lost to aging, toxicity or loud noise.

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Researchers at this week's Hearing Restoration Project summit at the New York Academy of Medicine

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noted the human body does have the capacity

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to restore skin cells, cells in the digestive tract and in a damaged liver.

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Dr. Andrew Groves of the Baylor School of Medicine says scientists are trying

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to apply that capacity to more complicated sensory cells.

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[Andrew Groves] You can break the problem down into two simple processes,

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One isthat, if you want to repair something, you have to make more cells; the cells have to divide.

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So understanding what tells a cell to start dividing and then to stop at the appropriate time is really important.

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[Peter Fedynsky] But researchers say that "simple" problem may take 10 years to solve

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and tens of millions of dollars to fund the effort.

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[music]

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At this point, Jay Alan Zimmerman is declining surgical treatment while he waits for a cure.

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In the meantime, he says he will continue writing musicals

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and performing his own compositions for theater.

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Peter Fedynsky, VOANews, New York

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[Music. continuo: "maybe - maybe not" with off voice: "Can you help?"]

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(Captions based on the transcript provided by VOA in the web version of this video)