We are very excited to announce opportunities to join us at The OHMI Trust with these two roles: First is a new role - that of Instrument Development Manager. Instruments have always been key to the work of OHMI. If an instrument allows an individual to play what they want to play, when and where they choose, then this is a vital step in participating fully in music-making. Instruments come from a broad range of sources, and this role will be pivotal in ensuring that the pipeline of development is maximised for the future. For full details please download the details below.: 
Second, there is an opportunity to join the wonderful team of Trustees that currently oversee the work of OHMI. This is a very important voluntary role at the Trust. At the current time we are particularly keen to recruit people with financial experience or fundraising knowledge. For full details please see the details below:
If you have questions about either role please email OHMI's General Manager for more information.
Please do share these opportunities with your contacts and networks too!  More disabled children than ever are being offered the opportunity to participate in music-making following the extension of the OHMI Music-Makers Whole Class Programme to a further three areas in England. The programme is now being delivered by The OHMI Trust in Central Bedfordshire, Southampton and Liverpool and has been made possible with Arts Council England National Lottery Project funding. Its aim is to offer parity of access to music-making for disabled children in Whole Class music lessons in schools.
Rachel Wolffsohn, General Manager at The OHMI Trust, explains the process, “The needs of a disabled student are not always apparent so our first step is to uncover and assess individual needs as part of an analysis conducted before lessons begin. We then choose the instrument or equipment to match, as closely as possible, the instrument being taught to the rest of the class. The music service and teacher are then supported to include the child with a physical impairment alongside their peers. “The OHMI Music-Makers programme is well established but lack of funding presents a barrier to wider rollout. We’re delighted that Arts Council England recognises the value of the service and will enable us to deliver our support to disabled young music-makers through Resonate in Liverpool, Southampton Music Hub and Inspiring Music.” Inspiring Music, the music service for Central Bedfordshire Council and lead partner of the Music Hub, applied to be part of the OHMI Music-Makers programme following CPD training facilitated by OHMI last December. Mark Lowe, Music Inclusion Manager at Inspiring Music in Bedfordshire, explains how participating in OHMI Music-Makers is a natural next step for their music service, “We are extremely excited to be working in partnership with OHMI on this project. Once we undertook OHMI’s CPD training, It became instantly clear that OHMI had the experience, skills, understanding and structure to allow us to embed the support required to provide accessible instruments for children and young people who are physically disabled. “We now strongly believe that this partnership, together with our Head Start Whole Class Approach, will allow us to provide more equitable, inclusive and accessible musical opportunities, as the children and young people we engage with can flourish in becoming the musicians they want to become.” More information on OHMI Music-Makers is available at: www.ohmi.org.uk/ohmi-music-makers.html  We’re delighted to announce the launch of a new online resource, designed to help disabled musicians find the adapted instruments and enabling equipment best suited to their needs. Entitled OHMI Connect, the website provides two entries into support: a search for instruments based on a musician’s impairment; and a search for options relating to a particular musical instrument. The process is a simple one. Users follow a series of questions about their upper limb/ digit weakness, difference/ restriction or absence, and the steps that follow will be determined by the answers given:
Once the option that best reflects the musician’s condition has been selected, a list of suitable adapted instruments is provided, including instrument that can be played left- or right-handed, or enabling equipment such as floor stands, support straps and bow holders. Each option will list how to find out more, whether it be a link to the OHMI Hire Scheme, a video demonstrating the instrument or equipment, or a link to another information source. Alternatively, the Show me specific instruments option on the home page provides the full list of instruments and enabling equipment, without the need to apply any filters. Find out more at the OHMI Connect website or watch the explanatory OHMI Connect video below,  L-R Clare Salters, Chair of the OHMI Trust, Rachel Wolffsohn, General Manager and Tom Shakespeare, Presenter of the Radio 4 Charity Appeal. We would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to the incredible Radio 4 listeners who took the time to listen, share and donate to our recent BBC Radio 4 Charity appeal.
As a result, we’ve raised an incredible £11,181 which will help match disabled musicians with the adapted musical instruments and enabling equipment they need to participate fully in music-making. We’ve also raised the profile of our small charity at national level. Our services are in high demand. Before the appeal went out, we had a waiting list which included five people waiting for bagpipes, one for the clarinet, two for flutes and one for a French Horn support. Some of these individuals had been waiting for nearly a year, often at a very challenging point of their lives. We know that two on our list were recovering from stroke and have no doubt that playing an adapted instrument would support their recovery. Thanks to the appeal, we will be able to purchase the new instruments and equipment needed and have cancelled out our existing waiting list. The appeal has also generated a number of enquiries from a new audience of musicians and music teachers so our work will continue unabated. The BBC Radio 4 Appeal was voiced by Tom Shakespeare and was broadcast on 28th January 2024. We were delighted with Tom’s support as he’s not only a social scientist, bioethicist and leading voice on disability issues but a familiar voice on Radio 4. In his delivery, Tom recounted the story of Maria who was born without a left hand, Rowan who uses her right hand to read Braille music whilst she plays, and Kaila, whose Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy is no barrier to playing the Bagpipes. “It’s really important that that disabled people can play musical instruments. I spend all my time listening to BBC Radio and I want to hear disabled classical musicians, jazz musicians, folk musicians, the whole lot! So that’s why I support OHMI and why I want them to be available to everybody.” Tom Shakespeare, social scientist, bioethicist and advocate for disabled people. Listen to OHMI’s BBC Radio 4 Appeal. If you would like to know more about the impact of the appeal please click here.  It has been another busy year for OHMI and its work in enabling those with physical impairments to participate fully in music-making.
Our 2023 highlights, listed chronologically, are as follows: January: Awareness day at Lancashire Music Service A significant part of OHMI’s role is awareness raising. We kicked off the year by running an awareness day for the team at Lancashire Music Service, supporting them in learning about the latest musical solutions for children living with an upper limb weakness, impairment or absence. February: OHMI shares its work with woodwind students at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire OHMI helped to raise the profile of one-handed woodwind instruments by presenting them at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. In Tower Hamlets, the OHMI team ran another successful OHMI Music-Makers Try It Day which offered disabled children the opportunity to try out one-handed instruments. March: One-handed recorder at the Royal Albert Hall A student learning the one-handed recorder performed as part of an ensemble at London’s Royal Albert Hall. A much smaller (but equally as important!) gathering was the OHMI Music-Makers Hereford Ensemble Day, which brought together many students and teachers to experience different styles of musical performance from large and small groupings and exploring improvisation techniques. April: Launch of OHMI’s training course OHMI’s new training course at Birmingham City University offered an introduction to music-making for physically disabled children. It included demonstrations of the instruments and enabling equipment available to enable children with disabilities to participate fully in musical life alongside their peers. The course ran for a second time in December 2023. May: Session for primary school teachers at Leicestershire Music Service A session for primary school teachers at Leicestershire Music Service demonstrated what can be made possible for children in their music lessons and extra-curricular activities. June: One-handed recorder put through its paces The 3D-printed one-handed recorders were put to the test when Sarah Jeffery, one of the world’s foremost promoters of the instrument, accepted our invitation to play the instrument. Sarah is an advocate for sharing her passion and expertise for the instrument, and posts weekly instructional tutorials on her YouTube channel, Team Recorder, which is followed by an audience of some 190,000 subscribers. Watch Sarah’s demonstration of the one-handed recorder. July: OHMI Music-Makers Whole Class assessments This is our busiest season to be analysing the needs of children in our partner organisations and identifying the best solutions to allow them to participate fully in music lessons from day 1 in the new academic year. We meet the children individually (alongside a member of school staff) in a video call, use some fun bits of classroom kit to understand their fine and gross motor skills, their ability to weight bear and their embouchure (if playing a wind/brass instrument). We can then ensure that the right equipment is provided in sufficient time for their teacher to understand it before the first lesson. It is a quick process that the children usually enjoy and the video process allows it to be more environmentally friendly than driving around to over 400 schools too! August: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire success Two OHMI students, Rowan and Antony took part in the National Orchestras for All programme, held at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Young people came together from across the UK for a residential course and much fun was had alongside the fantastic music-making. September: Role of Chair transfers from Stephen Hetherington to Clare Salters Stephen Hetherington stepped aside from the role as OHMI whilst remaining active and fully supportive of the Trust’s work as “Founder and Chairman Emeritus”. Clare Salters replaced Stephen as Chair. Clare’s impact has been made through her significant experience of charity governance and by lending her voice to spreading the word about OHMI through our vast connections across the education and charity sectors. Surrey Arts Teacher conference OHMI trustee Emma Brown was invited to be the Keynote speaker on inclusion at the start of Surrey Arts start-of-year training week programme. Emma worked through some scenarios of examples that teachers may come across when teaching disabled students and discussed approaches to full inclusion that might be taken. Teachers were given an opportunity to ask questions about her experiences as a double below-knee amputee and some shared their stories of how they and family members have experienced and/or overcome exclusion. Appointment of new OHMI Music-Makers Manager OHMI announced the appointment of its new Music-Makers Manager, Faye Oakland. The appointment signals a new stage in OHMI’s relationship with music services across the country, enabling it to work with many more to bring adapted musical instruments and enabling equipment to more disabled children. Learn more about Faye’s role. October: OHMI gets the key for its first offices and instrument demonstration space OHMI now has its very own space for people to visit and test musical instruments or supportive apparatus for themselves. Interested parties are invited to contact OHMI to make an appointment. November: We were pleased to reach the furthest corner of south east England through the Kent Music Conference, exhibiting our work to a broad audience at the Kent Showground. December: AHRC project Together with our research project partners Birmingham City University and Imperial College London, we kicked off a new AHRC networking project at an event on 7th November in the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. The meeting was the first of four designed to bring together stakeholders to encourage discussion and debate regarding music and disability. It was attended by a range of stakeholders from the UK as well as the Netherlands and Germany, including music hubs, various universities, The UK Association for Music Education - Music Mark and a number of disabled musicians. To one and all, the team at OHMI send their best wishes for a happy and healthy 2024. |
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