Bristol-based OpenUp Music has helped to transform music-making for young disabled people nationwide with its ‘Open Orchestras’ programme. Barry Farrimond, OpenUp’s Chief Executive and Technical Director, spoke to us about how Youth Music has supported the organisation over the years.
Learning from early trials
OpenUp first received Youth Music funding in 2010 to develop a range of new musical instruments that could be played by young disabled people, whatever their needs.
Barry had previously designed and trialled an instrument called the MUSE Board, but he recalls: “It was large, heavy, expensive, and required a dedicated music technologist to set it up.”
OpenUp realised a successful instrument would need to be three things: affordable, accessible (with an adaptable layout so anyone can play it), and expressive (giving the musician control over what and how they play).
Involving young people in design
OpenUp developed a range of instrument prototypes in partnership with Cardiff Metropolitan University, technology organisation Cariad Interactive, and three special schools.
“Our partnership was really productive,” says Barry, “and the investment from Youth Music was essential in getting that off the ground.”
The instruments used technology ranging from iPads and iPhones through to brain activity sensors, eye-gaze tracking and 3D motion capture. OpenUp actively involved young disabled people in the design process, making sure the results met their needs.
“We basically said ‘we don’t know what we’re going to make, but we’re going to work with these young people to find out’,” says Barry.
The fact that Youth Music showed faith in the young people has really paid off in the long run.
A breakthrough idea
In 2012, Barry recalls: “We were working in special schools, and people were excited about the British Paraorchestra playing at the Paralympics. A teacher said ‘wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a school orchestra’. The minute I heard that idea, I thought ‘let’s do that!’ We’d been looking for a context for all the instrument prototypes we’d made – now we had one.”
Over the next two years, OpenUp successfully launched six of the UK’s first special school orchestras in what became the ‘Open Orchestras’ project.
However, the instruments still needed more development to make them completely reliable and usable by a musician with no previous experience.
In 2015, OpenUp received funding from Youth Music and the Nominet Trust to develop one of the prototypes – the Clarion – into a “really finessed, rock-solid and transferable” musical instrument. After a year of hard work, OpenUp officially launched the first version in schools in August 2016.
The Clarion
Watch this video (2 mins) from OpenUp which shows the Clarion in action.
Barry calls the Clarion “a near-infinite number of instruments all contained within a single piece of musical software.”
It runs on iPad or Windows, and works with a range of assistive technology commonly used in special schools, such as eye-gaze trackers and motion sensors. This means it can be played with any part of the body – fingers, head, eyes or even feet – and practised at home as well as in the classroom.
The musician can choose what sound the Clarion makes, and lay out any number of ‘notes’ as shapes on the screen, change each note’s size, shape, position and colour, and play expressively by ‘hitting’ notes quickly or slowly and moving around within the shape.
It’s an affordable, accessible and expressive musical instrument that’s been crucial to the expansion of Open Orchestras.
National growth and future plans
Open Orchestras has also led OpenUp to develop a range of learning resources and specially-adapted musical repertoire, which they’re now supporting Music Education Hubs nationwide in adopting.
“Partnering with hubs is a really good way of disseminating our learning,” says Barry. “And we’re supporting hubs in delivering each of their core and extension roles for young people that are the most marginalised and under-represented.
“In the first year (2013-14) we worked with 36 young people across three schools. Soon we’ll be working with 15 Music Education Hubs, running 24 Open Orchestras for a total of 250 young people.
“We’re able to grow like that because of the initial investment from Youth Music all those years ago – it’s all built on that.”
OpenUp have also developed the award-winning South-West Open Youth Orchestra (SWOYO), the UK’s first and only disabled-led regional youth orchestra. 2017 brought further rewards for OpenUp’s pioneering work, as the organisation was awarded funding in Arts Council England’s National Portfolio for 2018-22.
“In September 2018 we’re going to launch the world’s first disabled-led national youth orchestra,” says Barry. “We want to see an orchestra in every single special school, and a national open youth orchestra that’s leading the way – not just in disabled-led music, let’s just call it music!”
Youth Music would like to thank OpenUp Music for their help with this case study. A special thank you also goes to the National Lottery for the public funding we receive each year through Arts Council England, without which none of this amazing work would be possible.