It’s a day etched into many people’s hearts, or at least their memory, even if they don’t remember the actual day, if they love music.
For most people, Feb. 3, 1959, is “the day the music died,” when a plane crashed, carrying rock and roll greats Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and J.P. Richardson (or the Big Bopper). For Joe Anastasi, the music stopped on May 23, 2024, the day he lost hearing in his second ear.
Since then, Anastasi, a musician in bands “Face First” and “Kiss Nation,” has lived an emotional and sometimes economically challenging journey. He has had two cochlear implants and recovered much of his hearing, but is still hoping and working to return to his life as a performing musician.
A photograph retoucher at costume maker Rubie’s II, a resident of Carle Place, LI, and a lifelong musician, Anastasi first learned to live without sound and has since fought to recover his hearing.
His situation and struggles inspired an article in Newsday on July 12, 2024, and now he has written a play based on the experience.
A GoFundMe page also has been set up to provide support for lost income and additional expenses at https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-joes-journey-back-to-music.
“Turn Up the Volume” is debuting at Theater for New City, 155 First Ave. near Tenth street, for a special run March 14-16, 2024. Shows are March 14 and 15 at 8 p.m. and March 16 at 3 p.m.
Giovanni Marine, an actor who has performed one-man shows before, portrays Anastasi in this one-man show directed by Danny Higgins at the theater that has presented plays hundreds of performers and plays, such as the Pulitzer Prize-winning Sam Shepard play “Buried Child.”
“He’s a fighter,” Lisa Gandia, booking agent and publicist for Anastasi of Face First and Kiss Nation, told Newsday. “He’s not a quitter.”
The show, largely in words Anastasi spoke to the journalist and playwright, describes his personal journey as a musician, husband, father, and friend. It is an emotional, powerful chronicle of what it means to lose, not everything, but something so many take for granted.
“Turn up the Volume” tells the story of one person and the larger story of those experiencing sudden deafness.
Anastasi suddenly lost hearing in one ear on Jan. 3, 2024, but could still hear in one ear until he lost hearing in the other months later and “The Sounds of Silence” became a reality not a song.
“I came down from the handstand, and my head felt like it was in an airplane before your ears pop,” he told Newsday of the day he lost hearing in his second ear. “I thought I just came down from a handstand too quickly.”
Anastasi experienced what’s commonly known as “sudden deafness,” or profound sensorineural hearing loss. With no warning and suddenly, hearing vanished in one ear and then the other.
“It can happen anytime,” Dr. Andrea Vambutas, Northwell Health’s senior vice president and executive director of head and neck services, told Newsday. “There aren’t other symptoms associated with it. It’s not like you know it’s going to happen. It’s boom.”
She said approximately one in 4,000 people in the United States suffer from it, with causes including viral infections; Ménière’s disease, which affects the inner ear; autoimmune disorders; and loss of blood supply to the ear.
At the time the Newsday article ran, Anastasi was using voice recognition software to read texts when people talked rather than hearing. Meanwhile, he was hoping and waiting for cochlear implants to help recover his hearing, which he has since had.
He has since recovered much of his hearing or at least the ability to hear through two cochlear implants, which allow him to reproduce sound using a device rather than the ear’s own infrastructure.
As he continues his journey, he hasn’t yet been able to perform with his bands, although he can have conversations with his wife, son, friends, and others.
Joe Anastasi’s emotional, at times inspiring journey continues with this show as just the latest moment in the story of a musician, father, husband, friend and fighter.
“When I take the stage and perform, I’ll be me again,” he says in the show. “And after all of this, I can go back to being me the way, I really believe, I was always meant to be.”
Turn up the Volume, March 14-16, Theater for the New City, 155 First Ave., NY, NY 1003 (near Tenth Street). 212-254-1109 / https://theaterforthenewcity.net/shows/turn-up-the-volume/
Disclosure: Anastasi wrote his play with assistance from Claude Solnik, the author of this story, who wrote the article for Newsday.
