Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for The OHMI Trust with easyfundraising?
 
There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.
 
All you need to do is:
 
1. Go to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/theohmitrust/?utm_campaign=raise-more and join for free.

2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to The OHMI Trust at no extra cost to you whatsoever!
 
There are no catches or hidden charges and The OHMI Trust will be really grateful for your donations.
 
Thank you for your support.

We are looking for a part-time administrator to join our small team.  Take a look at the job description below.  We are particularly keen to hear from those with lived experience of physical impairment.  Do share with anyone who might be interested!

​Disabled musicians are to benefit from an exciting new generation of adapted instruments, developed with the support of OHMI’s biennial competition.
 
OHMI’s ambition is a simple one – to allow disabled child and adult musicians living with an upper arm impairment to play the instruments they want to play, when they want to play them. Now celebrating its tenth anniversary, OHMI has gained momentum in its work across teaching, R&D, and awareness raising, counting an impressive 300 instruments and pieces of enabling equipment in its Instrument Hire Scheme.
 
The competition forms an important part of our work in bringing to life, new instruments and enabling equipment. The 2021 winners were announced at our tenth anniversary event, held at Aston University and live-streamed to a global audience (available to watch here). The winners were announced by Melissa Johns, actor and disability advocate, who has appeared in Coronation Street, acclaimed BBC drama Life, and, most recently, Celebrity Masterchef.
 
Melissa explains why she felt compelled to support OHMI’s work, 
 
“I’ve never considered being born without a right forearm as a disadvantage. And yet those of us who live with a disability often face the limitations that society creates, simply because we are too often ignored.  
 
“Improving access to the arts is one example. Progress has been made in making it easier for disabled people to experience the arts as spectators. Sadly, active participation can be frustratingly out of reach – simply because there is a lack of awareness of need, and instruments remain expensive to adapt.  
 
“Helping to develop instruments that truly meet the needs of disabled musicians, is a service that is desperately needed, and OHMI fits the bill most admirably.”  
 
The competition attracted submissions from as far afield as the US and Asia, as well as the UK and mainland Europe.
 
Winners are as follows:

• Concept category: recognising the most technically promising solution(s) to the challenges of access to music-making.
  • Cello Bow Holder by Clara Rionda Rodriguez (Spain);
  • Trumpet Assist by Isaac Buckman (US); and
  • Pivoting Trumpet Mouthpiece by Thomas Tschirren (Switzerland).
• Enabling equipment: celebrating the apparatus, including straps, stands and harnesses, that make a traditional instrument playable for a specified disability.
  • Flute Mount by Thomas Tschirren (Switzerland);
  • Prosthetic Drum Stick Holder by Nathan Macabuag, Koalaa (UK); and
  • Flute/Clarinet Floor Stand by Peter Worrell (UK).             
• Playable category: recognising those instruments capable of performance without further development.
  • Slide Recorder by Takehiro Otsubo (Japan); and
  • One-Handed High D and Low D Whistles by Peter Worrell (UK).

 
You can read more about the competition here. The next competition will open to entries in 2023

As I write this, I’m sitting at my boyfriend’s parents’ dining room table surrounded by all manner of camping equipment. This is not because they’re a particularly messy family but rather because we’re about to set off into the Gloucester wilderness with their motorhome and caravan. Yes, it’s time for my second holiday with my boyfriend – though this time his family are tagging along…actually, I think Michael and I are tagging along with them!
This will be a completely new experience for me. Caravanning is something I’ve never done, and something neither my parents nor I ever thought I’d do –I would undoubtedly have quailed from such a holiday as a child. But this time, I can honestly say I’m excited to try it out. This is probably because I’ve grown in confidence massively since I was a little girl. Also, I’ve learned something during adulthood: it’s alright to try new things, become a trendsetter or just be different
I’ve written this topic in previous blog posts, but now I want to expand on it via a discussion of jazz music. And what does jazz have to do with all that, I hear you ask? Well, by its very nature, jazz is experimental, innovative and, yes, trendsetting.
The traditional image of jazz (well, mine anyway) is a dark, smoky nightclub in 1920s-30s New Orleans, Chicago or New York with musicians like Louis Armstrong or Ella Fitzgerald on stage. Yet, the origins of jazz lie nearly 100 years earlier with the slaves on US plantations. From this beginning, jazz became influential in the Civil Rights Movement, feminism, fashion, and the diversification of the music industry (you can hear influences of jazz in modern pop, rock and rap music). 

​In the 1950s and 60s, African Americans began to demand equal rights to white Americans – the string of protests and demonstrations which followed became known as the Civil Rights Movement. When African Americans’ political voices were silenced, jazz, as an integral part of African American history and a popular music genre, became a medium by which civil rights activists could get their message out.  The great example is Billie Holiday’s 1939 rendition of Abel Meeropol’s poem Strange Fruit. In addition, jazz bands such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Operation Breadbasket Orchestra performed at benefits and rallies promoting civil rights.

To put it simply: jazz was a means of rebellion for many women. In the 1920s, the 19th amendment to the US Constitution had just passed, which granted all American women the right to vote, and some women were eager for more. Thus came the evolution of the flapper girl. These women cut their hair short, wore, what was considered at the time, risqué clothing and frequented bars, nightclubs and speakeasies where they could smoke, dance to jazz music and drink illegal alcohol.
Here, I think, more explanation is needed. The lively and improvisational feel of jazz music was not well suited to traditional ballroom dances such as the waltz, so new dance moves were invented, like the shimmy and bunny hug, which many contemporaries considered inappropriately sexual. Unfortunately, dancing in a long skirt was difficult, so women’s dresses became shorter and looser, evolving into what we now recognise as the flapper dress.
My reason for wittering on about the history and influence of jazz is not just because I’m a history junkie. Jazz is spontaneous and ever-changing. Indeed, improvisation is its crucial component, and this very nature could make it more open to new instruments, new performance methods, and, yes, disabled musicians.
Neill Duncan is just one of the many disabled jazz musicians across the globe. Following the loss of an arm, Neill now plays the one-handed saxophone and is also a music producer, composer and teacher. He spoke to me about his band, the Three-Handed Bandits.
“There’s only two of us,” he said. “[My bandmate] is just playing a seven-string guitar which means you’ve got a bass string, and I’m playing the drums with my feet and sax with my hand… And when we’re really swinging, it sounds like four people. [When I lost my arm] it was three hands still making the sound of a quartet, which people find to be pretty cool.”
Neill told me that improvisation is one of the aspects of jazz that appeals to him. He told me that after losing his arm, his new playing style fit jazz really well because the music genre was so flexible.
He said: “The thing the other thing about improvisation and jazz that I really like is when somebody’s expressing themselves, they’re actually telling a story, and jazz seems to be a much emptier canvas for [musicians] to tell their story on because they’re just coming from basically nowhere.
“My story was suddenly a completely different story. And also, because the instrument is different from a two-handed instrument, I learned it fairly counterintuitive. So, my playing all of a sudden became quite fragile, which I really liked. I really enjoyed the fragility of my playing, and it still is. I’m getting stronger and stronger, and I’m learning new things every day, but it still has a fragility that I never had before. So, I’ll go for a note, and it’ll be a completely different note, and I’ll just go with that. I really like how it’s changed.”
Neill views his disability as a force for good – proving that it doesn’t have to be a barrier. Something of which I definitely approve.
“My disability became a possibility. My story now is not just about, ‘hey, I can play jazz’, but ‘hey, I can play jazz under terribly adverse circumstances over the loss of one hand’. So that’s sort of added to the story of me just being a jazz musician. I’m a disabled musician, and the story involves the disability; how I can play the instrument, the instrument itself, and quality within the music,” Neill added.
Since the very beginning, jazz has been a cultural phenomenon by which the side-lined in society could have their voices heard. Starting off as the music of slavery, it has stood for the African American fight for equality and greater freedom for women, to name just two. It has even started off some fashion trends and could perhaps be a champion for disabled music-making in the future.
​
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1101632550312191

​The good news or the bad news first? Well, the good news is that I’ve been offered a job. The bad news is that I’m not going to have time for the blog. Thus, this will be my last post. My dear readers, it’s been an honour...Good luck!

The OHMI Trust is delighted to announce that its 2021 Competition Awards and Tenth Anniversary Celebrations will take place on Saturday, 25th September.
 
The event is expected to attract musicians and representatives from musical organisations from around the world, who share a passion for enabling people living with disability to access and play the instruments they love.

The event will be live-streamed from 6pm BST and includes the following:

• Performances from the talented OHMI musical community.
• Announcements of the winners of our 2021 Competition and demonstrations of their equipment. The Competition, which is held every two years, supports research into, and production of, adapted musical instruments and enabling equipment.
• A celebration of OHMI’s achievements over the last decade.

 
We’re happy to announce that British actor and disability advocate, Melissa Johns, will be hosting the event. Best known for her roles in Coronation Street, absorbing BBC drama Life, and, most recently, Celebrity Masterchef, Melissa will be presenting live from our Birmingham venue.
 
The live broadcast will allow us to share the celebrations with a global audience, reflecting the truly international nature of the competition entries over the years.
 
You can register for the event here: https://bit.ly/3ANUZ3A.