During half term (week starting Monday 27th October) disabled people will have the opportunity to create an original piece of music.
The scheme called Symphony for the Disabled is a series of workshops to be held in Tamworth. Workshops are open to any disabled person over the age of 16. The initiative runs for a week and is absolutely free!

Everyone welcome
Any disabled person in Staffordshire can take part, no matter what your disability is.
It doesn't mater if you can't read music or play an instrument because established musicians will teach you everything you need to know from scratch. However, if you do already have musical ability you are welcome to share your talents and bring along any instruments you may own.

Salamanda Tandem
The workshops are to be led by Nottingham based group Salamanda Tandem. Salamanda Tandem are a group of artists who create dance, music and visual arts often in collaboration with people with disabilities. The musicians from Salamanda Tandem will be leading the workshops and will be on hand to answer all your music related questions.

To find out more about Salamanda Tandem click HERE

You decide
Salamanda Tandem want the participants to create music they will enjoy. So the type of music created will depend upon what the group likes to bop along to, be this pop music, classical music or whatever, you decide.

Action Art Tamworth
This unique activity has come about thanks to the European Year of Disabled People Initiative, a year long scheme that is giving money to help disabled people throughout Europe. The European Year of Disabled People has presented Action Art in Staffordshire £10,000 pounds, some of which has been used to run the Symphony for the Disabled workshops.

Action Art Tamworth is a project that Tamworth Borough Council put together in partnership with WMDAF (West Midlands Disability Arts Forum) and Tamworth Disability Forum for the benefit of disabled people in Tamworth.
The project is a variety of arts and media workshops and events and it runs upto March 2004.
See the Action Art website

Keep your work forever
All the music created at the sessions will be recorded to a CD so you can keep a memento of your week at the Symphony for the Disabled workshops.

Interested?
If you are interested in attending Symphony for the Disabled please e-mail Kevin Hodgetts of Tamworth Borough Council’s Community Projects team and tell them we encouraged you to apply!

Sarah Williams