Mansfield musician Jess helping to break down barriers for the disabled
A young musician from Mansfield has joined a pioneering project to help disabled people break down boundaries and barriers.
The project, called MEHEM Uprising!, aims to improve the quality and accessibility of music education for young people with special needs.
And Jess Fisher, 22, who is a member of Nottinghamshire’s award-winning Able Orchestra, is supporting it by giving a series of interviews on the challenges she has faced as a disabled musician.
Jess regularly performs her own music using the innovative Control One wheelchair-controller. And she has helped technology company, Digit Music, design equipment that enables disabled artistes to create their own sounds.
In the interviews, labelled ‘More Than A Chair’, she explains how important it is that disabled musicians overcome adversity, and she also reveals her own aspirations for the future.
Jess said: “The biggest barriers I face are having to prove and show people that it shouldn’t matter whether I have a disability or not, or how I present my music.
"I’m still a musician, and I’ve just had to work around playing a different way to everyone else.
"I’m still able to do what I love, and I want to change people’s views and sometimes negative stereotypes when it comes to disabilities.”
MEHEM (Music Education Hubs East Midlands) Uprising! is a three-year project backed by the Inspire Youth Arts team, which is based at The Old Library in Mansfield and which developed Able Orchestra.
Inspire Youth Arts collaborates with the six other music hubs in the East Midlands and also has the support of the national charity, Youth Music, with funding from the National Lottery. The whole project is being evaluated by Birmingham City University.
Jess was interviewed by Marianne Barraclough, who is a deputy chief executive of the East Midlands-based professional orchestra, Sinfonia Viva.
Marianne said: “Jess’s first-hand experiences of music education and the fact that she is now forging her own music career make these interviews extremely powerful.
"I hope her words will inspire both educators and young people alike to aim higher.”
Ben Sellers, co-ordinator for the MEHEM Uprising! project, said: “There are more than 100,000 young people with additional learning needs in the East Midlands.
"Although a great deal of excellent music-education work is happening across the region, we want to lead the way in raising the bar even higher.
"The aim of the project is to bring together a wide range of music professionals to share learning and to develop resources.”
Inspire Youth Arts offers exciting opportunities for young people to take part in arts projects and programmes in dance, music and digital projections.
Alongside a 100-seat theatre space, The Old Library venue offers a professional recording studio, exhibition area, cafe bar, Mac suite and a number of teaching, rehearsal and workshop spaces.
The team is part of the Inspire group, which delivers culture, learning and library services on behalf of Nottinghamshire County Council.
Jess’s interviews can be found on Inspire Youth Arts’s social media platforms under the hashtag #MehemUprising.
You can see Jess performing with her wheelchair controller here at https://www.facebook.com/InspireYouthArts/videos/253949675827491/