Orchlab Touch Instruments
The Orchlab Touch Instruments are a series of bespoke accessible musical instruments that have been created as part of OrchLab, a long-term partnership between Drake Music and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. OrchLab is an accessible music program that aims to enhance wellbeing and increase confidence through music-making. Each year, Drake Music develops a new, accessible instrument , in collaboration with the disabled participants of the project and LPO musicians.
In this short film, you’ll find out a lot more about the Touch instruments and the co-design process. You’ll hear from the technologists who built the Touch instruments, as well as from the disabled participants who were involved in the design process.
The Kit
In this short film, you’ll find out more about our latest OrchLab Touch instrument, from the person who built it. You’ll get to see inside the Touch Violin, an accessible version of a traditional violin, taking a closer look at the components, as well as hearing about the various design choices that were made throughout the co-design process with disabled participants from the OrchLab project.
The Touch Harp is one of the most popular accessible instruments to come out of the OrchLab project, and in this video, the instrument’s builder Gawain Hewitt takes a closer look at it.
The Story
Sharing prototype designs, and making them open-source, is going to be a key component of AMIC. As this project continues and more instruments are developed, source code and design files will be made available to ensure that they are available for everyone to make, adapt and improve. All of the instruments in this series are co-designed with workshop participants ensuring that they really meet their needs. Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more about how they’re developed and what the potential is for making, adapting and building on the designs.
