Blind Hacienda Heights 4-year-old is youngest accepted to Academy of Music for the Blind

Tuesday, May 28, 2019
SoCal virtuoso is youngest accepted to Academy of Music for Blind
Anabelle Adamson was born blind with special needs. At just 4 years old, Anabelle is the youngest student ever accepted to the Academy of Music for the Blind in Whittier.

HACIENDA HEIGHTS, Calif. (KABC) -- Anabelle Adamson was born blind with special needs. Her parents in Hacienda Heights never imagined that her other senses would make her an exceptional musician.

"When God closes one door he opens another one. God gave her this amazing talent," said Anabelle's mother, Monica Adamson.

Anabelle is, at age 4, the youngest student ever accepted at the Academy of Music for the Blind in Whittier.

She was born with a condition called coloboma. Her eyes have no retina.

"When she turned 8 months old, they actually told us that she was blind - permanently and irreversibly blind. And that's when we went outside the hospital and just broke down," said Anabelle's father, Scott Adamson.

Her journey is chronicled on her Facebook page and on Instagram. She discovers her world through sensations in her hands and ears from tapping a cane to striking a keyboard.

Her parents were delighted when she could plink out nursery rhymes - but then came Beethoven and Brahms.

"She was starting to put little keys together and I looked at my wife and I'm like, 'did she just do that? Did she put some notes together?'" recalls Scott Adamson.

In Anabelle's debut performance, she was placed on the drums. The song was John Lennon's, "Imagine."

Today, its her parents who can imagine a new future.

"I know she is very blessed, she going somewhere. She is going places with her talent," her mother said.