AMI Études is the debut 2025 album by composer Megan Steinberg performed by deaf, disabled and neurodivergent musicians on Accessible Musical Instruments.

The artists are:
Kris Halpin – MiMU Gloves
Steve Varden – Synths
Morwenna Louttit-Vermaat – Rainbow Harp
Liza Bec – Roborecorder
Clarence Adoo – Headspace
Kathryn Williams & Sonia Allori – Flute & EWI

The album is produced and engineered by Alex Armstrong-Holding. It is funded by Help Musicians UK, PRS Foundation and AHRC.

Demos

Please enjoy these raw, unmixed demos of the tracks to be released on AMI Études.

‘Fuyu-Kyū’, Kris Halpin (MiMU Gloves)
Frosty non-piano piece exploring harmony and melody.

‘Sails Amongst the Trees’, Steve Varden (Synths)
Graphic map score that traverses the Norfolk Broads.

‘Rotae Fortuna’, Liza Bec (Roborecorder)
Game piece based on musical tarot cards with medieval influences, merged with electronics

‘Air Space’, Clarence Adoo (Headspace)
Sounding the space above our heads

‘This is happening’, Kathryn Williams (Flute) & Sonia Allori (EWI)
Different layers of reality using graphic/text score and creative captions

‘Études des Bâtiments: Kamppi’, Morwenna-Louttit Vermaat (Rainbow Harp)
Bowed harp inspired by the Kamppi Chapel, Finland.

‘Études des Bâtiments: Fallingwater’, Morwenna-Louttit Vermaat (Rainbow Harp)
Watery harp inspired by Fallingwater, USA.

‘Études des Bâtiments: Bait Ur Rouf’, Morwenna-Louttit Vermaat (Rainbow Harp)
Growing pinched harmonics inspired by Bait Ur Rouf mosque, Bangladesh.

‘Études des Bâtiments: Guggenheim’, Morwenna-Louttit Vermaat (Rainbow Harp)
Arpeggio movements based on colourful scarf choreography inspired by Guggenheim, Spain.

‘Études des Bâtiments: Centre Pompidou’, Morwenna-Louttit Vermaat (Rainbow Harp)
Projected coloured light based chords inspired by the Centre Pompidou, France.

‘Études des Bâtiments: Nuevo’, Morwenna-Louttit Vermaat (Rainbow Harp)
Duet with BeatBlocks app using Lego

Artist Bios

Megan Steinberg

Kris Halpin

Kris Halpin is a singer, songwriter and disabled person. Drawing on influences as varied as Ryan Adams, Steve Vai, the Beatles and Metallica, Kris has been a prolific songwriter-guitarist from an early age. Kris has Cerebral Palsy, a condition that has affected his ability to play traditional instruments. By 2015, Kris impairment had deteriorated to such an extent that he was unable to perform live with a guitar, and was preparing to quit performing music for good. Through a charity in the UK called Drake Music, Kris was introduced to Grammy Award winning musician Imogen Heap, who was developing a groundbreaking instrument called mi.mu gloves. This wearable technology allowed Heap to recreate her electronic music in a new, visually striking, gestural way, without being reliant on traditional electronic instruments. It was also apparent that this technology could be harnessed as a groundbreaking new accessibility tool for mobility impaired musicians like Kris.

Kris is the first artist ever to use the gloves in this context and explore there potential as an accessibility tool. in 2016 Kris began touring a live show, The Gloves Are On, which explored this new technology to reimagine his guitar-based music in a completely new and innovative way. The tour was hugely well received during it initial week-long run in the UK, and has since continued to be performed across the UK and Europe. Kris work has gathered considerable media attention in the UK, with appearances on BBC One, BBC Radio 1, and regular features in national newspapers in the UK. Most recently, the show has been nominated for a prestigious award in the UK; the National Lottery Awards Best Arts Project.

https://dyskinetic.net/

Steve Varden

I am Steve Varden and I guess I mainly play a mix of traditional percussion and electronic music, but I am also a passionate improvising musician across many genres. I play percussion and electronic instruments in a multi-genre big band and more electronic instruments and effect units in a couple of improvising collectives.

I am increasingly becoming bonded to my growing collection of synthesisers and all of the wonderful soundscapes they can offer me as a creative musician. As a one-handed and often one-fingered musician I am often frustrated by the double button presses that are required to access all of the features on electronic instruments. However, I have devised and designed several low tech adaptive equipment solutions to combat these difficulties by using things like strong magnets and 3D printed components. I rarely play exactly the same thing twice as I want my music and playing to remain fresh and exciting in my own compositions. I am always searching for new sounds, shapes, rhythms and beats. It’s a bit like prospecting for gold as it takes a lot of time and effort, but when you hit the good stuff, it’s party on. 

https://www.drakemusic.org/blog/becky-morris-knight/artist-profile-steve-varden/

Liza Bec

Liza is an award winning, innovative contemporary performer, composer, producer, lyricist and multimedia narrative author.

After being awarded the cross disciplinary boundary breaking Fusion Fund by Help Musicians UK to create a narrative audiovisual work, they built their own instrument, the roborecorder. The roborecorder is featured in the Museum of Science and Industry’s touring exhibition ‘Turn It Up: The Power of Music‘, currently on display in London and was inducted into the BBC Radio 6museum by Lauren Laverne. Liza was chosen to showcase the roborecorder at Classical: NEXT 2024 in Berlin supported by the PRS International Showcase Fund. Their work has been featured in New Scientist and Insider magazines.

Liza studied clarinet performance at Trinity College London where they were awarded a Distinction and the Hambleton Clarinet Prize. Their professional performance career was cut short after the devastating diagnosis of a rare form of epilepsy, triggered by playing certain patterns of notes, after which they qualified as a medical doctor on the Graduate Entry programme at King’s College London.

https://lizabec.com/

Clarence Adoo

Clarence is a Salvationist and professional musician – a trumpeter. He has played with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta & Northern Sinfonia and many other groups. In 1995, Clarence was involved in a car crash which broke his neck and left him paralysed from the neck down, but was not entitled to claim on insurance for his horrific injuries. He is an amazing and inspirational guy who is still teaching and taking part in concerts despite his condition.

Clarence was awarded the MBE in the Queen’s New Years honours 2012 for services to music but also with reference to his community work and example as a role model. He was later granted an honorary doctorate.

German-born American composer-cum-inventor Rolf Gehlhaar was asked to devise an instrument that Clarence could play. The result was the Headspace Instrument, a computer-based “virtual” instrument, but a real instrument nonetheless. It could be classed as a wind instrument as it is controlled by Clarence’s breath, but is assisted by head movements. The Headspace instrument has been an extremely significant part of Clarence’s rehabilitation. It has facilitated his return to performing and feeling the buzz of being on stage. In short, it has been the platform for making a comeback.

http://www.clarenceadoo.co.uk/

Kathryn Williams

Kathryn Williams is a versatile flutist, creative collaborator, and researcher. Her work focuses on making tangible connections between instrument and body, interrogating ideas around accessibility and physical limitation. 
Kathryn earned a BMus, MMus, and International Artist Diploma from the Royal Northern College of Music and a PhD from the University of Huddersfield.

Kathryn is a core member of contemporary music ensemble The House of Bedlam. As an orchestral freelancer, Kathryn has performed with many orchestras across the UK such as Opera North, Hallé Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Kathryn’s extensive discography includes releases on All That Dust, Another Timbre, Hat Hut, Nonclassical, RVNG International, and NMC.

She recently completed a post-doctoral project at the RNCM which explored the interplay between indoor air quality, technology, and musicians’ health and wellbeing through creative musical practice. Kathryn’s research and advocacy has been impactful in making music workplaces safer and more equitable.

http://www.kathryngwilliams.com/

Sonia Allori

Sonia Allori is a Scottish/Italian composer, performer, researcher and music therapist. Her PhD in composition explored music, text and gender and her practice has a combination of words and music at its core together with inclusion and an insatiable curiosity for all things. She is a multi-instrumentalist and has been known to sing from time to time. Her work is often inspired by nature and an appreciation of humour in everyday life. Sonia is a performer/ composer with Sonic Bothy (an inclusive experimental music ensemble based in Glasgow) and is researching D/deaf performance at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

Recent commissions are: Deconstructing Tartan (2023) – Drake Music Scotland/ Sound Festival – Clarinet & accordion; Random eddies (in the space-time continuum) (2023) – Drake Music Scotland – Piano, EWI, clarinet & track; Robots & Dinosaurs (2024) – Drake Music Scotland/ Nordic Days – Baritone & digital instruments; The Goddess of Ballachulish (2024) – Illuminate Scotland Concert Series – Soprano & cello.

https://soniaallori.co.uk/

Morwenna Louttit-Vermaat

Morwenna has played the harp since the age of 12, after seeing a harpist at a school May Festival and convincing her parents that she wanted to learn it.

As a teenager with dyslexia, Morwenna Louttit-Vermaat struggled to read sheet music. She was desperate to play the beautiful music she had heard others play on the harp, but the squiggles and dots on the page just looked like a foreign language.

She came up with a novel idea. She added colour. She would colour in the dots on the page and put coloured stickers next to the strings on her harp. This enabled her to follow her passion and become a skilled, professional, harper. She wondered if this technique could be developed to make it possible for even more people to be inspired by beautiful harp music.

Fast forward 20 years, and Morwenna and her husband Creag have developed the Rainbow Harp. With rainbow-coloured strings and rainbow-coloured sheet music, it breaks down the most common barrier to would-be musicians.

https://www.handsonharps.com/