About OHMIHow OHMI supports physically disabled people to fully participate in musical life.
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The OHMI Trust’s objective is a simple one: we enable children and adults with physical impairments to play the instruments they want to play, when they want to play them and where they want to play them (whether at school, in the home or in a professional ensemble).
Virtually no musical instruments can be played without ten highly dexterous fingers. This denies unlimited and undifferentiated participation in musical life to those with congenital disabilities and to amputees, as well as the millions who may have been injured, suffered a stroke, developed arthritis or for whatever reason lack the full strength and control of their upper limbs. |
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The four important strands of OHMI’s work
InstrumentsThe OHMI Competition remains our primary source of instruments.
We also commission the development of instruments and enabling apparatus where no solution already exists or which needs further refinement. Instruments borne from the OHMI Competition or from one of our commissions are available to hire from the OHMI Instrument Hire scheme. This valuable service enables those with physical impairments to explore adapted instruments and enabling apparatus and to see if items meet their physical needs and musical interests before committing to a purchase. Learn more about the OHMI Instrument Hire Scheme. |
TeachingOur teaching programmes provide opportunities for children with upper limb impairments to learn a musical instrument that has all the capabilities of the traditional equivalent but also meets their physical needs. It’s known as the OHMI Music-Makers programme and it offers each participant weekly, individual 30-minute lessons from a specialist local teacher.
Our Music-Makers programme began life as pilot projects in Birmingham (2015) and Surrey and Hampshire (2016). It is now extending across the UK. Learn more about OHMI’s Music-Makers Programme. |
Raising AwarenessThe OHMI team are happy to attend and to speak at any event to raise awareness about the disparity of music provision for disabled people. Over the years, we have attended events hosted by Music Hubs, schools, arts bodies, hospitals, occupational therapy teams, disability charities and universities, as well as music conferences in the UK and overseas.
To approach us about an event, please get in touch. |
ResearchThe OHMI Research Partnership (the "ORP") was launched in 2019 as a collaboration between the OHMI Trust, Imperial College London, and Birmingham City University. Its purpose is to form new research partnerships with music and disability, with universities, researchers, musicians, educators, sociologists and instrument makers globally. Areas of potential research include instrument design and adaptation, music education, policy issues and social impacts.
Learn more about OHMI’s research. |
Overcoming barriers to music-making for physically disabled people
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Our story
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OHMI was established in 2011 by Dr Stephen Hetherington. Stephen began his career as an orchestral musician but it was his own hemiplegic daughter, Amy, who alerted him to the lack of instruments available to disabled musicians.
“Our desire for music is profound. Wherever there is human life there is music; it is the expressive, supportive soundtrack to our lives, integral to everything we do. And in its performance, it carries the rewards of individual achievement in shared experience, uniting each player with others and all with their audiences, in bonds of aesthetic union. To deny participation to anyone is to deny them a human need and right.” Dr Stephen Hetherington, Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the OHMI Trust |
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Donate to OHMIThere are so many disabled people who are desperate to play music with their peers. We can help to make that happen – but we can only do that with the wonderful support of our funders and donors.
As our instruments have to be hand-made by experts, they can only be produced in small numbers and are therefore expensive. Every little really does help.
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Contact us
If you have a query or wish to contact us, please use the contact form available here.
You can also write to us: The OHMI Trust, 29 Woodbourne Road, Harborne, Birmingham B17 8BY |
Subscribe to our Newsletter
If you would like to join our mailing list and keep up to date with the latest news, please complete the form available here.
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Privacy and Cookies Notice | Complaints Policy
All content © OHMI - Enabling Music-Making for Physically Disabled People
The OHMI Trust is a registered charity (Registered in England and Wales Charity No. 1143623, Scotland Charity No. SC052047).
Registered office: 29 Woodbourne Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 8BY
All content © OHMI - Enabling Music-Making for Physically Disabled People
The OHMI Trust is a registered charity (Registered in England and Wales Charity No. 1143623, Scotland Charity No. SC052047).
Registered office: 29 Woodbourne Road, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 8BY