FEELING THE TUNE NEARLY DEAF TEEN VIRTUOSO 'HEARS' NOTES BY VIBRATION.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Ben-Han Sung drew the bow across the strings of his violin Monday morning, flawlessly playing Mendelssohn's "Violin Concerto in E Minor."

The 14-year-old concertmaster of the Los Angeles Unified School District's 97-member middle-school orchestra, Ben-Han can hear just a faint whisper of the beautiful sound coming from the instrument tucked under his chin.

But he can feel it with all his heart.

"He's 90 percent deaf, wears two hearing aids, and is a violin prodigy, a virtuoso," said Susan Treworgy, the instrumental music teacher at Portola Middle School in Tarzana.

"You should hear him play the piano. Amazing."

It is amazing. Even his father, Li-Yu Sung, a software engineer who came to the United States from China in 1981, can't explain it.

His older daughter, Ben-Zhen, an 18-year-old concert pianist now studying at Stanford University, was supposed to be the musician in the family.

Certainly the little brother who tagged along to all her recitals would never be able to play an instrument as beautifully, especially with his hearing disability.

But there he was a few weeks ago, getting a standing ovation as the featured violinist with the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony Orchestra.

And on a recent Sunday, walking onto the stage at the Kodak Theatre to make sure each musician in the orchestra had his or her instrument tuned before the conductor took the stage.

That's the concertmaster's job -- given to the musician chosen as the best in the orchestra. Ben-Han, now an eighth-grader, got the job in sixth grade, and he never let it go.

"The first time I heard him play when he arrived from elementary school, I was amazed," Treworgy said. "I called his parents and asked them how it was possible that a child who is nearly deaf can play in tune so beautifully?

"He feels the vibrations, like Beethoven, coming through his instrument. He has perfect pitch and can feel it when someone playing next to him is out of tune. It's incredible."

Ben-Han's parents had no idea their son even had a hearing disability until he was 3 and failed to respond when his mother called to him from another room in their Sylmar home.

"Asians have a tradition of holding their babies close to them for a long time," Li-Yu said. "Ben-Han was always on our lap or in our arms. He could hear what we were saying up close or read our lips."

Only when the boy got a little older and spent more time playing by himself in his room did they discover the reason he never answered them when they called.

"We never had a violin in our home. No one in our family ever played it. But at his sister's recitals, Ben-Han was drawn to the violin. He said he liked the sound it made. He started playing at 4."

Just two year later, as a first-grader, the kid with the hearing disability was playing first violin in the orchestra at Balboa Magnet Elementary School, although students aren't usually allowed to join until third grade.

"Playing doesn't have to do with my hearing disability," Ben-Han said. "I just hear the tones. I feel the music."

Now, as an eighth-grader with dozens of music awards, scholarships and performances to his credit, he has been accepted to the prestigious Harvard-Westlake School next year.

"Once people get past the fact that he's deaf, they will accept him for what he is -- a prodigy, a virtuoso," Treworgy said.

"There's absolutely no reason he can't be a professional symphony violinist one day."

That would be nice, Ben-Han says, but he wants to make it clear that he couldn't have done all this by himself.

He thanks his parents, his teachers, and his friends for accepting him as he is: a great kid with a hearing disability and a major talent.

"He's just so humble," Treworgy said. "For the longest time, he wouldn't play the piano for me.

"One day I went outside but stood by the door to listen. It brought tears to my eyes how beautifully he played the piano concerto.

"I came back in and told him he was fabulous. He just looked up at me, embarrassed."

After finishing Mendelssohn's concerto Monday morning, Ben-Han asks his teacher if it's OK if he leaves now. He doesn't want to be rude, but he'll be late for history class.

I forgot to mention. The kid with the hearing disability is getting straight A's, and he is the odds-on favorite to be class valedictorian at Portola Middle School this year.

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Portola Middle School student Ben-Han Sung is concertmaster of the Los Angeles Unified School District's 97-member middle-school orchestra, even though the 14-year-old is about 90 percent deaf.

(2) Portola Middle School student Ben-Han Sung amazes his music teacher, Susan Treworgy. He feels music's vibrations.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer