‘Sonic Art – Opportunities for a Level Playing Field for Disabled Composers and Performers’

Sonic Art is an umbrella term that encompasses electro-acoustic music and sound design which involves the use of technology in its creation and performance. In this paper I wish to argue that, almost uniquely in the area of music, Sonic Art provides a level playing field for composers and performers with disabilities. This is due to the fact that composition and performance conventions in Sonic Art, which rely heavily on the use of sensor technologies and computer software, free practitioners from the usual musician’s prerequisite of having finely developed motor skills; to be a virtuoso requires only that a creative imagination is at work. I will illustrate my argument with a case study of the Wired Ensemble, a groupcomprising musicians with varying disabilities who include amongst their achievements three separate invitations to perform at one of the most prestigious contemporary music festivals in the world, Sonorities, based at Queen’s University, Belfast.The violinist Darragh Morgan, who has performed with the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern and Icebreaker, recently commissioned a new work for violin and live electronics that he premiered with the Wired Ensemble in April 2004 to great acclaim. I will argue that the combination of creativity and cutting-edge technology has taken this group out of the normal circuit of disability events into the mainstream where they are accepted and appreciated on their own terms as musicians regardless of their disabilities. I will further argue that these developments should be taken seriously by further and highereducation institutions and that pathways in Sonic Art should be made more widely available for musicians with disabilities.