Drake Music, the leading national UK charity working in music, disability and technology, has announced that three emerging disabled musicians have been awarded 2019/20 Emergent commissions.
Emergent: A Music Legacy is the charity’s three-year programme which provides opportunities, support and profile for the next generation of disabled musicians as they develop their music careers.
Robbie Ashworth, The Dyr Sister and Remi Fox-Novak (pictured above, left to right) will create new work which brings together music and film, responding to the question, ‘What does it mean to be you and living in today’s society?’.
Drake Music brought the three artists together for a collaborative and exploratory music-making session in November 2019 and they are now working on their commissions individually.
In 2019/20, Drake is working in partnership with Sound and Music to raise the profile of disabled composers within the UK contemporary music scene. As well as partnering each winning musician with a film-maker, both organisations will support them to become part of the British Music Collection, an online space and discovery platform for new music and creators in the UK.
The composers, from London, Nottingham and Hull, come from very different musical backgrounds, including contemporary folk music, underground techno and composition for moving image.
The Dyr Sister (Sally Currie) is a multi-instrumentalist who is partially deaf and has an extensive history writing and performing music both with bands and as a soloist. Her current project, The Dyr Sister, is a contemporary folk band which expands on her previous solo work and is described as ‘Fairy tales for the Modern Gentleman’.
Sally said:
‘I am very excited as a deaf artist about turning my music into visual art and all the different possibilities that this entails. Being able to add another dimension to the presentation of my work that is accessible to the deaf community is something that means a lot to me and I feel privileged to be able to join the programme and explore this.’
Carien Meijer, Chief Executive of Drake Music, said:
‘This is the third year of our Emergent commission programme and it is wonderful to see the quality of the musicians coming through. This year is particularly exciting as the partnership with Sound and Music will allow the musicians to reach a whole new audience with their work.’
