Drake Music Project
Leon Hippolyte using microphone and switch 3
photo Martin McCarthy 2006
Over the years, Drake Music has worked in highly innovative collaborations with a range of cutting edge disabled musicians including Lyn Levett, Mark Rowland, Steve Knight and Catherine Long. It has also engaged in pioneering work both in the use and development of assistive music technology such as soundbeam, which allows you to play an instrument without the use of touch, and E-Scape, which opens up a range of possibilities for using computers to make music independently. The Drake Music website is full of information about software and hardware which facilitates composition and performance by disabled musicians.
[There has been some criticism within the disability arts sector about the lack of input from disabled artists in terms of running the project. This is being taken on board by the new director Carien Meijer who is currently leading a phase of organisational redevelopment.
What does Drake Music currently offer?
The project is primarily about broadening opportunities for people to develop as musicians. We currently work in London, Bristol, Manchester and Milton Keynes. (There are independent sister projects in Scotland and Ireland.)
Drake Music is about offering opportunities to people of all ages who want to learn to play an instrument either through new technology or through other means. This can be because they just enjoy it and see it primarily as a social activity or because they want to become professional and work within the music industry. This can be done either in a formal or informal educational environment.
Drake Music has been going through a period of change. We are in the process of clearly setting out our artistic vision and what it means to progress musically. Currently, we have: a team in Bristol who work with children and young people; in London we tend to work with adult musicians on a one-to-one basis in our small accessible music studio; the project in Milton Keynes concentrates on ensemble work and in our Manchester region we work with adult groups and schools. In the future we would like to broaden the range of opportunities available in each region through courses, workshops, summer schools, showcases, and commissions.
The most important thing is that people can see that, regardless of disability, you can be a musician. Some of the musicians, who worked with Drake Music over a number of years, have given us feedback that we haven't emphasised their musicianship enough and have put too much emphasis on their disability. This criticism includes how people have been portrayed and this is one of the issues we intend to address in the short and long term.
last updated: 2006-12-16 00:00:00