“James Rose is used to being underestimated,” writes Stephen Moss in Tuesday’s (8/21) Guardian (U.K.). “Rose’s speech is impaired by his condition, cerebral palsy; he is in a wheelchair; people who meet him assume he will be intellectually slow, but he is the exact opposite…. On 27 August, he will conduct at the Proms, at the head of his own six-piece ensemble made up of other musicians with disabilities…. He will be at the Proms because of a scheme by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, which has, with Arts Council England backing, been building a disabled-led ensemble called Resound over the last two years…. Resound’s six musicians perform as a self-contained group, but also play as members of the larger orchestra. At the Prom they will perform as a chamber band, conducted by Rose, alongside the symphony orchestra in a new piece by BSO Resound composer-in-residence Alexander Campkin, and then join the orchestra and conductor Sian Edwards for the remainder of the program … ‘For the last four or five years we have been working hard, alongside other disabled-led organizations such as OpenUp Music, to make what we do more inclusive,’ says Lisa Tregale, head of BSO Participate.”
Posted August 23, 2018
In photo: Conductor James Rose, center, with members of BSO Resound, an ensemble of disabled musicians. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
