“I dream of a time when I can turn up at a venue and not need to call them first” – musician Elizabeth J. Birch & Youth Music CEO Matt Griffiths talk about the experiences of disabled people in music

Ep 126: in this episode Editor Joe Sparrow is joined by musician and music education facilitator Elizabeth J. Birch, and the CEO of UK charity Youth Music Matt Griffiths. They join us to talk about the experiences of disabled musicians in the UK music industry – and the work done by Elizabeth and Youth Music to improve it. Elizabeth is a champion of accessible music-making, and shares her knowledge with aspiring young disabled musicians. She hopes for a day when the disabled community are not so overlooked in the music industry – and Elizabeth has now been nominated for the Inspirational Music Leader award at this year’s Youth Music Awards for her work at Midlands Art Centre as a result of her work. She and Matt talk about their work, explain how the disabled community is still quite invisible in the UK music scene, and what can be done to improve things in the music industry – including platforming more disabled people on and off the stage. Youth Music Awards https://youthmusic.org.uk/awards Youth Music https://youthmusic.org.uk Elizabeth J Birch https://elizabethjbirch.bandcamp.com/ Lock picking https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/97409-most-locks-picked-in-one-minute ------ 👉 FREE Amazon Music for Artists courses & certification: https://learn.musically.com/courses/amazon-music-for-artists/ 👋 The Knowledge, Music Ally’s free weekly newsletter: musically.lnk.to/knowledgepo 🎉 You may be eligible for a FREE Music Ally subscription, worth £399/year, via our corporate and sponsored subscriptions. If you work for a DSP, a major label, an indie label, or if you’re an artist manager, an employee of a CMO or a publisher, check here to see if you’re eligible: musically.com/subscription-options Ⓜ️ Subscribe to Music Ally's industry-leading analysis, reporting and news: musically.com/subscribe Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicallybiz Twitter: https://twitter.com/musically Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicallyfb