The MUSE Project

MUSE was founded in 2007 to ensure that disabled children and young people access exceptional music making experiences, develop their musical skill and talent, and to challenge limiting expectations of disabled people’s musical contributions – supporting a wider aspiration to dispel negative perceptions of disabled people.

In 2013, MUSE launched Accessible Youth Orchestras, an inspirational and ground-breaking project designed to give disabled children and young people their first chance to regularly practice and perform music together as an orchestra. Prior to this we couldn’t find any accessible youth orchestras in the UK. Now, thanks to this project, there are three. In the coming years we plan to establish many more orchestras across the UK, working towards the establishment of the UK’s first National Accessible Youth Orchestra in 2018/19.

As well as providing exceptional music making opportunities, we also create cutting edge musical instruments. Thanks to innovative research and development programs such as Listening Aloud, we have been able to create musical instruments that can enable a musician to play the sound of any instrument they wish by moving a finger, a foot or even by opening their eyes or moving their face.