PIANIST FOUNDER’S INNOVATIVE IDEA STRIKES A NEW CHORD WITH HELP FROM ALUMNA KELLY FORD
DECEMBER 20, 2021
by Charlotte Bachelor, Aaryn Richard
The Burgess Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation announces that Yoo Jin Noh, an award-winning pianist and doctoral candidate (DMA) in MSU’s College of Music, is the inaugural recipient of the Kelly A. Ford Technology Scholarship.
Kelly Ford (Communications, ’94) established the scholarship because she is a passionate believer in the Burgess Institute’s work and wishes to support the next generation of Spartan entrepreneurs. Ford’s financial commitment to entrepreneurship education at Michigan State is only one part of her active role within the ecosystem.
At the start of the fall semester, Ford, along with twelve fellow Spartan alumni, joined the Burgess Institute as an entrepreneur-in-residence. In this volunteer role, she regularly connects with an assigned cohort of student venturers to provide guidance, support, and industry-specific insights as a dedicated mentor.
“I admire the work of the team at the Burgess Institute,” said Ford, “and I’m passionate about doing what I can to foster the entrepreneurial spirit and student success at Michigan State. My hope is, together, we’re ultimately strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Michigan, the Midwest, and beyond.”
Ford, a tech industry executive turned general partner at Edison Partners, is no stranger to promising innovators and their products. When she was introduced to Yoo Jin Noh’s innovation, she was struck by the product’s promise.
“Yoo Jin has conceived of a solution that enables blind musicians to not only more easily learn, interpret, and compose musical works on their own, but also collaborate with sighted instructors and fellow musicians to bring new work to life,” said Ford. “The technology is exciting, as it is the opportunity to address inequities that exist for this underserved population. I’d love to see the product adopted widely for education, leisure, and even therapeutics. Moreover, You Can Feel the Music is an excellent example of collaboration between multiple university departments. Entrepreneurship and company-building are all about intersections and alignment between top talent and subject matter experts. I look forward to seeing, and hopefully funding, more student ventures that leverage a broader base of university resources to advance and commercialize their ideas,” said Ford.
Established in 2021, the Kelly A. Ford Technology Scholarship is intended to encourage students who have demonstrated the capacity to achieve educational and professional goals, the motivation to achieve them, and the initiative to seek opportunities to further their progress. Noh is awarded a scholarship of $5,000.
In 2020, with guidance from her advisor, Deborah Moriarty, Noh launched her startup, You Can Feel the Music. Her company aims to make music collaboration more equitable for blind and disabled musicians.
“A professor suggested finding an opportunity to learn what print music notation looks like. I thought, ‘Okay, that sounds interesting.’ So, I sought help from the Resource Center for People with Disabilities. They connected me with Karen Bird, an alumna experienced in working with print and graphic notation, and the MSU Tower Guard,” Noh said.
Working with the Toward Guard, Noh experimented with several different tactile designs. The result: magnetic notes, staff, and board. The design empowers musicians to feel each musical note as a physical piece and discover how each fits into a composition. Even after this initial design triumph, Noh is finding ways to push and improve her innovation.
Fast forward to 2021, and Noh’s innovative idea begins generating light and heat: She won the $2,500 top prize at the College of Music’s Running Start competition earlier this year. This fall, she qualified to become an advanced student venturer in the Burgess Institute’s Launch program. Like her peers, she receives one-on-one mentorship and financial resources to scale her company and refine her idea.
“The next step is to develop a way to play a note’s sound when placed on the staff line. I’m searching for engineers and people experienced in technology to help assist with this next phase,” said Noh.
Noh, who was born blind and has always excelled in music, found it difficult working with sighted musicians who didn’t necessarily know Braille. She also wanted to provide opportunities for blind individuals who don’t know Braille.
“Braille literacy among blind people is very low. I read in an article that, in fact, only 10% of the blind population can fluently read and write in Braille. Some fear learning a new literary code, so I can imagine fluency in music literacy is even lower.”
In fact, the creator of Braille notation, Louis Braille, was an organist and devised the music notation before literary notation.
Noh continued, “These materials could reach people who don’t know Braille. My hope is to give them the courage to learn the notation to feel empowered to create.”
Looking ahead, Noh hopes to equip the board with a Bluetooth speaker to play the notes and an app that would scan the notes and play the pitch aloud.
“I believe whatever is being innovated should be inclusive to all people,” said Noh.
She is grateful for being part of the Burgess Institute community and for how it has assisted her on her product creation journey.
“The Burgess Institute is such a great resource for students seeking funding and connections. It’s where students experience encouragement to be creative, to take risks, and to explore their ideas,” said Noh.