Sunday 21 April 2013

This is the blog of the "Visually-impaired musicians' lives"(VIML) project at the Institute of Education, University of London, which is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Dr. David Baker is the Principal Investigator and Professor Lucy Green, his Co-Investigator and Mentor. VIML has two official Project Partners, the Royal Academy of Music, London and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

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12 comments:

  1. I will be fascinated to read the accounts of their lives and experiences from visually impaired musicians!

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    1. The previous comment was from Lucy Green.

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  2. This is a test blog from James Risdon at RNIB

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    1. Thanks for testing the blog for us, James. I hope your recordings went well. I look forward to meeting up with you shortly at the RNIB, London.

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  3. Hello my name is Ian McNamara, I am very interested in this project. I am 29 and live in Sutton coldfield just outside Birmingham. I do not read music but play by ear, however i'm hoping to start trying to learn a bit of braille music in the future. I play a bit of Piano and am learning the flute which I have been doing for about a year. I also sing and have recently started retaking lessons again, i've been singing since I was very young and have a grade six in musical theater. I achieved a pass with honors scoring 89 marks out of 100.

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  4. Hello, Ian. Thank you for your message. I would be very interested in interviewing you and learning more about your experiences of musical learning. If you have time, perhaps we can communicate by e-mail: david.baker@ioe.ac.uk Thank you for making contact. Do you know of other visually-impaired people who are learning music in the Birmingham area or elsewhere? I would be really interested to hear from them.

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  5. This is Phyllis from the Young Visually-Impaired group (YVI) in Sevenoaks in Kent. We like making music in various contexts, karaoke, entertaining each other and some do solo singing and play guitar, one took part recently in a Kent Association for the Blind event called River Voice and quite a few ex-pupils from Dorton House School for the Blind are doing a charity concert next week on 15th June in Otford in aid of Sight Savers, so there are lots of people we know who would be interested in knowing more about musical activities.

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  6. Thank you, Phyllis. You clearly have a very exciting group and I look forward to meeting yourself and its members at some point. I wonder how many similar groups there are across the UK. It would be great to hear from them.

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  7. I wish to convey my sincere gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the “Visually-impaired musicians’ lives” (VIML) project so far. Professor Lucy Green and I are absolutely delighted to have acquired funding for this venture from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), plus the support of the Royal Academy of Music, London and Music Advisory Service of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). Thank you Sally, James and Anthony! Over recent months, I have spoken to visually-impaired (blind and partially-sighted) musicians in the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. There have been some fascinating musical lives to discuss, both from amateur musicians and professionals alike. Additionally, I have been talking with music teachers working with visually-impaired students (both instrumental and class music teachers), including contacts at key UK institutions for the education of visually-impaired people. All this is gradually leading to a valuable pool of knowledge that will shape our publications, thus raising awareness of the issues surrounding visual impairment and music. It will also, we hope, feed into the training of students at the Royal Academy of Music. Please visit our website at http://vimusicians.ioe.ac.uk for more details of the VIML project.

    Please do “spread the word” about the project. Your help in doing this is just so important. I would be delighted to hear from further visually-impaired musicians (even beginner instrumentalists or singers) or, indeed, teachers working with visually-impaired students. The more interviewees we have the better!

    With all good wishes,

    David
    david.baker@ioe.ac.uk

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  8. Hi

    Visually-impaired pianists will be inspired by Caroline Sablayrolles, a pianist (who recently also became a mother) from Strasbourg, France. I met her at a workshop organised by Michael Stembridge-Montavont. Both are professional pianists firmly in the Cortot tradition, which emphasizes feeling the music, though of course Caroline does work (while learning) from scores painstakingly memorized.

    Her home teaching studio, where she also learns her pieces, is equipped with a camera and a giant monitor on top of the piano, which allows her to see each note at about 10cm high, so it must take her a while! She is an established member of the teaching team at one of the town's music schools, and I asked her how she teaches - she said that she gets the pupil to work harder by getting them to read the music, intervening when necessary. Being a seasoned musician, she knows a wrong note when she hears it! Knowing the works of some composers, for instance Mozart, intimately, helps enormously.

    Caroline is a former pupil of Portugal's greatest pianist, Maria Joao Pires. She has written a book, dedicated to her, but which charts her life story up to meeting her husband, including her fight with Stargardt's disease and other setbacks, which she recounts, quite concisely, with humility and poignancy, but also with humour.

    Unfortunately the book's only available in French, but I could translate it, should that be required (I've learned from experience that it's best to check with the publisher first!)

    It is a honour to have met Caroline and to have received some instruction at the piano. I hope she'll be able to come to Jersey International Festival for Amateur Pianists in May 2015 - she missed this year's on doctor's orders, it was just too close to the baby's birth!

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  9. Thank you for your message, Emily. Caroline's story is very inspirational. If you are in touch with her, please do ask her to make contact with me (david.baker@ioe.ac.uk) and/or mention the project questionnaire, which can be accessed by pasting this link into a browser https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RJHBGNH Alternatively, I am always pleased to complete the survey with people by telephone or Skype. The more responses we get the better, so please do spread word of this to any visually-impaired musicians (professionals or amateurs, of any genre or instrument). It would be wonderful to hear from Caroline too. The "Visually-impaired musicians' lives" project has developed into a very exciting venture with people making contact from across the world (e.g. the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Burundi, Kenya, Indonesia, Malaysia, Denmark, Colombia, Brazil, and so forth). In March 2015, we will be having a project conference and details can be found at http://vimusicians.ioe.ac.uk/confer_train.html Anyone who would like to attend should contact the Conference Administrator, Robert Mitchell at r.mitchell@ioe.ac.uk Thank you, once again, for your post Emily. I hope that you have a great weekend.

    With all good wishes,

    David

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  10. Details of our two-day March 2015 conference, which will be held in London can be found at http://vimusicians.ioe.ac.uk/confer_train.html

    Further information can also be obtained by contacting Robert Mitchell at r.mitchell@ioe.ac.uk

    Our project questionnaire can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RJHBGNH

    If you are a visually-impaired (blind or partially-sighted) musician, please help us by completing the questionnaire. Please tell any visually-impaired musicians you know, living anywhere in the world, about the survey and this link. The survey is confidential. We would like to hear from any type of musician, from amateurs to professionals, and people making music of any genre and in any context.

    Thank you for your support.

    David

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