'America's Got Talent' singer performs at Rochester's Bamber Valley Elementary

Mandy Harvey at Bamber Valley Elementary School — Mandy Harvey, a singer, songwriter and inspirational speaker who lost her hearing at 19, receives the "Bamber Buzzer" from Principal Jim Sonju after performing for students Friday, March 28, 2025, at Bamber Valley Elementary School in Rochester. Harvey received the Golden Buzzer on "America's Got Talent" and finished fourth overall on the show's 12th season in 2017.

By Jordan Shearer

March 28, 2025 at 1:12 PM

ROCHESTER — As dozens of students sat on the floor of the gym at Bamber Valley Elementary School, singer Mandy Harvey told them to take their fingers and place them on their vocal cords. Then, she led the room in singing a note — and then a higher note. And then she asked them if they could feel the difference between the two.

Through that simple process, she was helping the students understand the way she performs and experiences music as a deaf person. It was a fitting message for the students of Bamber Valley, which houses the school district’s deaf and hard of hearing program.

“That’s how I do music,” she said. “Everything that I do is based off of touch.”

As a performer on the show "America’s Got Talent," Harvey received the coveted Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell in 2017. During a video of her audition, she told the panel of judges that she’d taken her shoes off so that she could feel the beat of the music through the floor of the stage. She went on to finish fourth that season.

When Bamber Valley Principal Jim Sonju heard Harvey was coming to the Twin Cities, he started looking into the possibility of having some students see her perform. But then, he decided to invite the singer to perform for all the students at the school.

“She said she’s had to do speech therapy for the last 18 years," Sonju said. "And that’s what our kids are doing."

Having loved music her whole life, Harvey lost her hearing as a teenager from a condition that caused her nerves to deteriorate.

She went on to describe her journey of learning to love music again — in a new way. Part of that happened when she met Erik Weihenmayer, who was the first blind person to ever climb Mt. Everest. He challenged her to start writing music.

She told the students about how she could feel the vibrations of the ukulele "tickling" her fingers as she performed.

“I realized,” she said, “that just because I can’t hear the music, doesn’t mean that the music doesn’t exist.”

During one song Harvey performed on Friday, she was backed up by a band of students who each had their own ukuleles. For the final song, she taught the students how to use Sign language for the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

And at the end, she was sent off with style.

“We all know she got the Golden Buzzer from Simon Cowell,” Sonju told the gym full of students. “And that’s pretty cool. But the only thing cooler that I can think of is getting the Bamber Buzzer.”

Together, everyone started counting backward: three, two, one. Suddenly, the sound of cannons exploded, sending colored confetti into the air.

Harvey couldn't hear the cannons, nor could she hear the students cheering. But, she no doubt could feel it.

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By Jordan Shearer

Jordan Shearer covers K-12 education for the Post Bulletin. A Rochester native, he graduated from Bemidji State University in 2013 before heading out to write for a small newsroom in the boonies of western Nebraska. Bringing things full circle, he returned to Rochester in 2020 just shy of a decade after leaving. Readers can reach Jordan at 507-285-7710 or jshearer@postbulletin.com.

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