Call for papers and presentation ideas issued for OHMI’s Music & Physical Disability Conference 2025

Valerie Thomforde at the 2018 OHMI Conference, testing out a violin adaptation created by Lia Mice

A call for papers and presentation ideas has been issued to help deliver a major conference on Music & Physical Disability taking place in Birmingham on 15th and 16th March 2025. The conference, which is being delivered by the OHMI Trust, in collaboration with Birmingham City University and Imperial College London, will explore the music-making barriers faced by people with physical disabilities, from the design and ongoing production of instruments to wide-ranging issues around performing. The event aims to bring together perspectives and experiences from a wide range of people including disabled musicians and instrument makers, as well as academic researchers from many different disciplines, teachers, charities, funders, and government agencies.  Recently developed instrument designs will also be demonstrated.
 
The event builds on the success of the inaugural OHMI Conference in 2018 which attracted international representation and speakers from five continents.
 
Rachel Wolffsohn, OHMI’s General Manager, said, “By sharing knowledge in this way at such a high-profile conference, we hope to stimulate further and more rapid developments over the coming years. We would like to encourage presentations or presentation ideas from anyone who understands and is interested in this important area of work.
 
“We are looking for submissions that might relate to specific instruments, teaching, performance or learning. They might be early experiences with music, and their consequences, or challenges of relearning an instrument after acquiring a disability – and everything else in between.”
 
The deadline for papers is 30th September 2024.
 
The winners of the OHMI Competition awards will also be announced at the event.
 
Further information is available on the OHMI Research Partnership website: https://www.ohmirp.org.uk/ohmiconference.html