Fenestra – Let’s Support Visually Impaired Musicians!

This is the kind of news the world would need more of. Forget for a moment about ‘cool’ product news, silly rumours and such things, and let me introduce you to Fenestra.

Fenestra is an initiative that recognizes the diverse aspirations and abilities of people who are visually impaired or blind. The aim is to assist people of all ages in leading independent and active lives while realizing themselves creatively within the field of electronic music.

The initiative will cultivate actionable knowledge, unite electronic music instrument, especially modular synthesizer manufacturers, resellers and related NGO’s to promote understanding of issues related to synthesizer use between the visually impaired and blind.

To empower the creativity of the blind and visually impaired within the field of electronic music, the initiative undertakes the responsibility of providing the right tools that encourage and inspire artistic expression.

Fenestra is initiated by non-governmental organization Artes Liberales that was established in 2017 in Riga, Latvia. The organization aims to promote the importance of music and art within a society and the wholesome development of a person.

The main hub of the initiative is Synthlab in Riga, Latvia – mission is to provide music producers and composers with many all-time classic synthesizers. Synthlab Studio is powered and created by the leading studio equipment store in the Baltics – T Studio. As the main hub, Synthlab will receive the donations of instruments, assemble systems and host workshops and events of Fenestra.

On 5th of September first Fenestra workshop took place in the main hub of the initiative – Synthlab in Riga, Latvia (see video above). The workshop was organized by Erica Synths and gathered 4 visually impaired musicians from Latvia to learn the possibilities of the Pico System III. It was led by Mario who despite his visual impairment has been mastering modular synthesis for several years in addition to playing the trumpet and being a DJ. All the participants were gifted Pico Systems to endorse their continuation of electronic music explorations.

Some Interesting Numbers

Globally, it is estimated that approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment. 188.5 million people have mild vision impairment 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment 36 million people are blind

Blind children are 4,000 times more likely to have perfect pitch. 48% of blind children demonstrate significant interest in everyday sounds compared to 13% of those with full sight.

Support Fenestra

Make sure to check out the official website of the initiative to learn how you can support Fenestra, and share this article to spread the word about it!