Justin is the son of Jay Osmond, lead singer of the Osmond Brothers. Justin inherited the Osmond family musical talent, as well as genetic hearing loss.   

When I was 18 months old, I simply wasn’t responding to aural cues from my parents so they took me to Brigham Young University where I was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss. I was treated with behind-the-ear hearing aids and started speech therapy immediately. When I was three years old, my parents heard from several sources that the House Clinic in Los Angeles was one of the best in the country for patients with hearing loss.

It was Dr. Howard House who performed my surgery. He simply did a surgical operation to make sure my inner ear and middle ear were in good shape and not malformed in any way that might prevent my getting good results from hearing aids. He was able to confirm that my ear structures were okay, and that I had a sensorinueral hearing loss. I was very young, but I do remember his kind and warm personality that made me feel so very comfortable every time I came to the clinic.

When I was learning to play the violin I was afraid to shift positions into the higher range because I couldn’t hear the notes in the high frequencies very well. I didn’t give up though. By memorizing where my fingers needed to go, I aced it. I can’t say that it was easy. I remember one night when I was practicing my violin in the music building at school. The other room was full of brass instruments and they were so loud that I couldn’t hear myself play the notes on my violin. So I simply turned off my hearing aids. That got rid of the noise problem, but how was I going to hear myself play? I started experimenting and soon realized that as I put my violin next to my cheek and jaw bones, they served as bone conductors and the sound vibrations from the violin transmitted the sound waves through my bones. This allowed me to “hear” every note I was playing. My hearing loss has never prevented me from doing what I wanted to do.

I grew up in a musical family, and have been in music for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, my siblings and I used to tour across the country in our group called ‘Big C and the Little Os.’ We each played a stringed instrument and played a variety of tunes from Disney, bluegrass, hip-hop, classical, and more. This led us to Branson, MO where the Osmond Family has their own theater. Here we performed daily for more than 2,000 people per show. I performed alongside my siblings, my dad and uncles for three years playing the violin, dancing, and singing. It was a lot of fun! My dad and uncles still have the theater to this day and continue to share their musical talents with the world. I considered pursuing a music career and I easily could have done it, but I felt that my education was much more important. I went to school, got a music scholarship, participated in the University Chamber Orchestra, got my degree and went into public relations. I chose PR because I love people. I don’t look at anyone as a stranger, but as a friend I have yet to meet.