Global community joins OHMI celebrations in Birmingham for disabled music-making

Toyah Willcox presents OHMI Playable Awards to Peter Worrell

​Celebrating individual achievement, academic progress and instrument development in disabled music-making were the themes of our major conference and awards ceremony which took place at BCU’s South Campus on 15th – 16th March 2025. The weekend event, which we delivered in collaboration with Birmingham City University and Imperial College London with support from headline sponsor ABRSM, brought together musicians, music educators, instrument designers and instrument makers from North America, Australia, Asia and Europe. Delegates were offered the opportunity to discuss how to overcome barriers to music-making faced by people with physical disabilities, from the design and ongoing production of instruments to wide-ranging issues around performing.
 
Winners of the OHMI Competition Awards, which challenges instrument makers, designers and technicians to create and develop musical instruments that can be played without the use of one hand and arm, were announced on Saturday evening by singer-songwriter, actress and presenter Toyah Willcox.
 
Toyah, who spoke at the ceremony of her own experience of disability as a force for creativity, said: 
 
“It’s been an honour to work with OHMI on these incredible awards. Every child and adult with an upper arm impairment has the right to express themselves in the world through music and to play instruments the way they want to play. It’s so easy to solve any problems that might prevent that. It just takes donations, accessibility and those people with brilliant design minds to come together and make it possible, and that’s what OHMI is about.”
 
The winners were announced as:
 

• Concept category (seeking to recognise the most technically promising solutions to the challenges of access to music-making): Odisei Music (Spain) for the Adaptive Travel Sax 2; Peter Worrell (UK) for the One-handed Bagpipe Chanter; and Daniel Vaczi for the Glissotar (Hungary).
• Enabling category (seeking to celebrate the apparatus that make a traditional instrument playable for a specified disability): Thomas Tschirren (Switzerland) for the Flute Bridge; Peter Worrell for the Remote Trumpet Mute; Andrew and Graham Clennell (UK) for the Tuba Fourth Valve Customisation; and Michael Rath (UK) for the Trombone Bracket and Support Stand System.

• Playable category (recognising those instruments capable of performance without further development): Peter Worrell for the 3D-Printed Descant Recorder and 3D-Printed One-Handed Clarinet, with a special commendation awarded to Eric Poirier (Canada) for the Jam Kick Guitar.

 
OHMI General Manager Rachel Wolffsohn said:
 
“So many disabled people look to OHMI for support. For musicians who have acquired an upper limb impairment or disability through illness or accident, this often comes at an incredibly upsetting and unsettling time. We’re deeply humbled that so many travelled so far to join us – including from the US, Japan and Australia – and some at significant personal expense. That illustrates how many people valued the opportunity to meet with others and to share experiences amongst what is a truly unique group.” 
 
More information about the Competition winners is available at: www.ohmi.org.uk/ohmi-competition.html. Recordings of the presentations will be added to the OHMI Research Partnership website in due course: www.ohmirp.org.uk/ohmiconference.html.