Learn About VTM Ambassador Casey Harris

Sound has no limits, and neither does he.

Casey Harris has always navigated his world through sound. He is an advocate, musician, and someone who has spent his whole life doing things people assumed he couldn’t.

Early Days

Harris grew up in Ithaca, New York, with roughly 20% of normal vision due to Senior-Løken Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that causes retinal impairment. Despite his blindness, Harris attended public school and lived a relatively “ordinary life,” as he describes it.

He grew up in a musical home, which he credits (alongside his teachers) for shaping his identity as a professional musician. “My brother and I grew up with a cabaret singer for a mom and our dad used to say he played the record player really well. Which he did,” said Harris. “He exposed us to all different sorts of genres. It was just very much part of the atmosphere growing up.”

In elementary school, Harris began taking piano lessons. It was at Lehman Alternative Community School where he sharpened his musical ear, crediting instructor Dara Anissi for teaching him not just to hear but to deeply listen and match that to the keys on his piano.

“It felt like a superpower,” he said. “And it’s such an invaluable skill that I use to this day during recording sessions or when I’m writing a song.”

It was also at Lehman where he got his first real taste of the joy of making music with other people, which made Harris realize his childhood hobby was meant to become his lifelong career.

“It really is a form of communication. A magical way of talking without words. That feeling of wordless connection and instant communication, that’s what inspired me.”

Mission Aligned

For years, Harris has used his platform to advocate for music accessibility. He says access in the arts is crucial.

“We’re moving more and more into a visually dominated world. Not a piece of music is released today without visuals to promote it,” said Harris. “The only right thing to do is make sure that it’s translatable to someone without vision. There is a lot in the music creation space that could have more intention to it in terms of adaptability for the blind.”

From lunchroom jam sessions in Ithaca to stages around the world and a GRAMMY® award, Casey Harris has lived every chapter of his musical journey — and now he’s sharing that story with the Vision Through Music community.