Choir director uses synesthesia to inspire, lead Little Miami High School choir
UC expert discusses neurological condition with WLWT
WLWT highlighted Sarah Baker, director of Chorale Music at Little Miami High School in Warren County, Ohio.
Baker has synesthesia, a neurological condition and perceptual phenomenon where two senses overlap.
“For most people with synesthesia, the most common form is vision and hearing,” Daniel Sun, MD, Myles L. Pensak, MD Endowed Professor in Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery, director of the Division of Neurotology, neurotology fellowship program director and associate professor of otolaryngology in the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and a UC Health physician, told WLWT. “Such as perceiving different colors as sounds, or different sounds as colors vice versa.”
When a student auditions for Baker, she assigns them a color based on what she sees when they sing. When the choir sings together, Baker sees a mosaic of voices and colors.
“The light of voices and then the darker voices behind them, but they are mixed,” Baker said. “Then they’re mixed so then we can create this lighter buoyant kind of experience in that type of piece of music.”
Featured photo at top of abstract colors in a ripple pattern. Photo/Eun Kyoung Jung/iStock.
Related Stories
Pocket-sized population threat
May 18, 2026
The Financial Times took a deep dive into why populations around the world continue to be on the decline. The publication cited new University of Cincinnati research as part of the investigation that looks at the fall of fertility in the digital era.
UC finds integrating substance use disorder treatment into clinic-based internal medicine expands access to care
May 18, 2026
A University of Cincinnati primary care teaching clinic integrates substance use disorder treatment into resident training, expanding access to addiction care and boosting physician confidence.
Colorado silica dust trial could change the way industry does business
May 17, 2026
Betsy Malloy, Andrew Katsanis Professor of Law, at the University of Cincinnati, spoke with Bloomberg Law about how a Colorado trial could change the way the stone fabrication industry does business.