OHMI welcomes Dr Mat Dalgleish to its Board of Trustees

Dr Mat Dalgleish

We are delighted to announce that Dr Mat Dalgleish is one of four new trustees to join the OHMI Board.
Born near Birmingham, Mat grew up playing the trumpet and, later, the guitar as a one-handed musician. Since January 2023, Mat has been a Senior Lecturer in Game Audio and Technical Design at Staffordshire University, where he leads the audio provision in the UK’s largest game development department. 
One of the key ways in which Mat expects to make a contribution in his role as OHMI trustee is helping to make the charity’s upcoming competition and 2025 conference the most successful to date. The competition is an important challenge for instrument makers, designers and technicians across the world to create and develop musical instruments that can be played without the use of one hand and arm.
Mat said,
“There have been so many technological advancements since the last OHMI conference in 2018. It’s exciting to think what might result from this year’s submissions and how it might create more choice of instruments for disabled musicians.
It’s really important to me that one-handed players, whatever their age, have agency in choosing their own instrument. As a six-year-old, the trumpet was chosen for me but the guitar turned out to be my real passion.
I was fortunate to progress on it quite quickly but playing the instrument one-handed has occasionally attracted hostility from some who think it should only be played in a traditional way, or by certain players. I really think design can mitigate some of the negative reactions disabled musicians face and look forward to seeing how the charity might challenge them.”
Clare Salters, OHMI’s Chair, added,
“Mat’s professional experience in instrument design combined with his personal experience as a one-handed musician will be a very welcome addition to the OHMI trustee board. We’re also delighted to have the opportunity to gain insights from his outreach work about how the music education sector - universities, music hubs, schools etc - can work together to make music more accessible.”
All at OHMI extend their warmest welcome to Mat.
 
(OHMI’s 2024 competition will be launched in December. Information will be added shortly to OHMI’s Competition page.)