Disability in Music and Theatre 6 Minute English

Disability in music and theatre
6 Minute English
Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC
Learning English. I'm Neil. and I'm Georgie.
Many people love watching movies at the cinema or going to the theatre to see a play.
But have you ever imagined what an art gallery would be like if you were blind or
how a deaf person might feel at a music concert?
In the UK, the Equality Act of 2010 guaranteed the rights of disabled people to equal
access to education, employment and services, including music, theatre and the arts.
Since then the Disability Rights Movement has worked hard to break down barriers
for disabled artists and performers and their audiences.
In this programme, we'll be hearing from a musical composer whose work using 'new
instruments' allows disabled musicians to express their lived experience through
music.
The phrase 'lived experience' emphasises the unique experience of disabled people,
plus the fact that this gives them knowledge and understanding that others do not
have.
And as usual, we'll be learning some useful new vocabulary as well.
Great. But first, I have a question for you, Georgie.
Despite 2010's Equality Act, it is still difficult for disabled musicians and music fans
in the UK to perform and see live music.
A study by disabled musicians' group Attitude is Everything found that one third of
music venues provided no disabled access information at all.
But which London music venue was recently given a Gold award for accessibility for
disabled musicians and audiences?
Was it a) the Royal Albert Hall? b) The Southbank Centre? or c) Brixton Academy?
I'll guess it was the Royal Albert Hall. OK, Georgie.
I'll reveal the answer later in the programme.
Megan Steinberg is a music composer at Royal Northern College of music where she
collaborates with Drake Music, a leading national organisation working in music
disability and technology.
Megan composes music to be played by 'new instruments'.
Here she explains what a 'new instrument' is to BBC Radio 3 programme Art and
Ideas:
So they may have been mass-produced or semi mass produced, or they may have
been designed and built by the musician themselves, just like a bespoke instrument
for themselves. And they're designed to be accessible to maybe just that one
individual performer or maybe also to lots of different performers with disabilities or
differences.
Megan's new instruments are designed to be accessible, to be used by someone with a
disability.
More generally the word accessible means enabling someone with a disability the
opportunity to engage in the same interactions and enjoy the same experiences as
people without a disability.
New instruments are both electronic and acoustic.
They might be mass produced, that's when a factory makes a lot of the same thing, or
bespoke, made specially for one person in particular.
So what are these new instruments like?
Listen, as Megan introduces the Rainbow Harp, a new instrument which was
designed
for harpist Morwenna Louttit-Vermaat to BBC Radio Programme Art and Ideas: And
the Rainbow Harp is a harp that has colour-coded strings and each string colour
corresponds to a different pitch.
So, Morwenna is dyslexic and she really found that traditional black and white
musical notation was quite an obstacle for her in learning and teaching music, so she
and her husband made these harps and they're, like, really colourful as she uses
colour in music.
Morwenna is dyslexic.
She has dyslexia, a condition which makes it difficult for her to spell, read and write.
So when Morwenna's harp teacher wanted her to play from written down sheet music,
her brain froze.
And that's how the Rainbow Harp was invented.
The strings of a Rainbow Harp are colour-coded: different colours are used to
represent
and separate out different strings and to produce different notes.
It's a great idea and an inclusive way for disabled musicians to share their talent with
music fans across the UK.
Which reminds me of my question, Georgie. Right, You asked me which London
music venue was awarded top marks for making music accessible for disabled
musicians and audiences.
I guessed it was the Royal Albert Hall.
So, was I right? Good guess Georgie, but that was the wrong answer, I'm afraid. The
good news for all music fans living in London is that the South Bank Centre is
accessible, ready and waiting.
OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learnt in this programme, starting with lived
experience, the things that someone has experienced personally for themselves rather
than heard or read about.
If something is accessible, It enables everyone to have equal opportunities and
experiences, regardless of their abilities.
To mass produce something means to make many copies of it cheaply in a factory,
whereas a bespoke product has been made specially for one person in particular.
A dyslexic person has dyslexia, a condition making it difficult for them to spell, read
or write.
And finally things which are colour-coded use different colours to represent different
parts or functions.
Once again,
Our six minutes are up, but remember to join us again next time here at 6 Minute
English.
Goodbye for now!
Bye!

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