Sound Without Sight podcast

Notes and video version: https://soundwithoutsight.org/replay-now-playing-in-an-orchestra-at-the-bbc-proms-as-a-blind-musician/

In this episode, we welcome recorder player James Risdon. whose work has led him from Bach to Bowie, the Middle Ages to Minimalism. He recently performed with Paraochestra and the Breath at the BBC Proms.

James speaks about his experience as orchestral musician, focusing on the Proms concert, including:

• The techniques he used to learn his parts, combining braille music and audio.
• His experiences of navigating rehearsals.
• And of course, performing in the Proms itself, including some audio clips…

This podcast was recorded live, as part of the Sound Without Sight Monthly Meet-up for September 2025, featuring questions from our community.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we explore the making of the BBC Radio 3 documentary, “Joining the Dots - 200 years of Braille Music”.

We welcome Kevin Satizabal, the producer of the documentary, and Matthew Wadsworth, its presenter.

Kevin and Matthew share insights into:
How they got into their roles.
The inspiration behind the documentary.
Its recording and editing process, and the gear they used.

They also share some clips and answer questions from our community.

This podcast was recorded live, as part of the Sound Without Sight Monthly Meet-up for October 2025.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we welcome Andre Louis, who composes a full track for our next season of podcasts in around an hour, using Logic Pro and Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol with a screen reader. Andre refers to the session as 'musical cheffing' and he takes suggestions for ingredients from attendees! He also answers questions from attendees throughout the session.

This podcast was recorded live, as part of the Sound Without Sight Monthly Meet-up for July 2025. We hope you enjoy!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode demonstrates accessibility tips and tricks in MuseScore Studio. We cover how to access all the functions that might be useful to low vision and neurodivergent musicians, including:

Customising the size and colours of the user interface,
Applying Modified Stave Notation styles to scores, to create larger and clearer music,
Saving your own style template according to your requirements and applying it to all your scores,
Using the continuous view mode to read your music in one long scrolling line.
And using plugins to colour notes and apply figurenotes formatting.

We also cover screen reader and keyboard navigation, and braille music functionality.

This session was recorded live as part of our Monthly Meet-up Session for June 2025.

I’m joined by Software Developer and Community Ambassador for MuseScore, Peter Jonas.

You can also access a video version and notes.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode features an interview with Ciara Moser. Ciara is a world class session bassist, composer, and educator on a mission to inspire through music, break down barriers, and show the world that disabilities are not limitations.

Ciara speaks about:
Performing live, touring, and playing on recording sessions.
The process of writing and releasing her debut album, “Blind, So What?”.
Taking the leap of faith to move abroad as a blind person.
Her work as an educator at the International renowned Berklee College of Music.

This interview was recorded live as part of our Monthly Meet-up Session for April 2024, featuring questions submitted by our community.

Ciara starts with an overview of her pathway into music.

We hope you enjoy.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.