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The ability to read and actively use Braille music represents one component of musicianship. What makes Braille a unique component is its ability to offer access to musical opportunities that require the skills of reading, comprehending, and writing music notation. This includes teaching and performance opportunities that rely on the ability to read at sight, a skill we refer to as touch-reading in Braille. Additionally, ongoing developments in technology are increasing the availability of Braille music, providing greater access and opportunity for people who can read and use it.
Wesseling Awards are Braille-focused awards. They are not intended to replicate existing music theory or performance exams, but to celebrate features of musicianship specific to practical music making with Braille. Some elements of music theory and performance are incorporated in the award process for the express purpose of assessing a person’s ability to apply Braille in a musical context. The awards are designed to recognize established Braille music knowledge and encourage further learning in this important area of music literacy.
Wesseling Awards contain five levels of Braille music proficiency. To gain a Wesseling Award at any level, candidates undergo a series of tasks designed to assess Braille music related skills such as touch reading, memorisation, Braille writing, dictation, verbal description, demonstration and study skills. You can find more information about the specific content and assessment tasks for each level – link to content and assessment pages …
Background
Dr. Wendy Richards often mused on the idea of a Braille-focused assessment system to encourage and motivate her learners. Having benefitted personally from Lisette’s friendship and collegial expertise, it seemed only fitting that the idea embody Lisette’s memory in some way. After a discussion with Neil Jarvis, the concept of Wesseling Awards was born and a small team of Lisette’s close friends and colleagues, all actively engaged with Braille music, formed a team. The next few years were spent developing an assessment system that would incorporate the skills and strategies required for practical music making with Braille.
The awards have been crafted with the memory of Lisette central to the process. She firmly believed that just as “language literacy can stimulate the imagination, music literacy can only enhance and strengthen a child’s musical creativity” (p. vii, Wesseling, 2004). Lisette’s reputation and influence as a singer and pedagogue helped to shape the teaching of Braille music in New Zealand. Lisette Wesseling Awards honour her legacy. They reflect her personal and professional values of working hard to achieve musical goals and her expectation that her students would likewise strive hard in their musical pursuits.
Award Design
The development team determined early on in the process that this award would not be one that was put on a shelf and then promptly forgotten. A Wesseling Award needs to reflect the significance of achieving it, the time and energy invested, and the skills and knowledge gained through the process. The Award is an interactive trophy that is added to at each level. It is designed by blind people to feel good in the hand, to be texturally stimulating, and incorporate an element of motivation. A Wesseling Award is aesthetically pleaseing visually, but more importantly, it is tactually pleasing.
Meet the Team
Stephen Bennett
Stephen Bennett has a post-graduate diploma in Jazz piano performance from the New Zealand School of Music as well as a post-graduate diploma in rehabilitation from Massey University. He used music Braille extensively during his jazz degree for learning big band material and for quickly jotting down melodies and riffs for combo work. He works as a piano teacher and music tutor and uses Braille on a daily basis for organ studies and for learning the repertoire for a local chamber choir.
Stephen has a keen interest in giving every learner the chance to expand their musical horizons, with a particular emphasis on encouraging the use of music Braille.
Chantelle Griffiths
Chantelle Griffiths has been vision impaired since birth and is a lifelong Braille reader. She is a keen musician who is actively involved with music programmes at BLENNZ and the wider blindness community. Her career to date has centred on teaching literary and music Braille to adults, Braille proofreading and transcription, and as an adaptive technology instructor. In 2021, she co-founded the Tactile and Technology Literacy Centre (TTLC) specialising in Braille teaching and learning, comprehensive haptic skills for understanding, and tactile design. Chantelle is a qualified Transformational Coach with a special interest in mentoring and leadership within the access community.
Chantelle was fortunate to have Lisette as a friend and mentor and was privileged to work with her in musical and Braille-related endeavours.
Neil Jarvis
Neil is a blind, Braille-reading music enthusiast. He had the good fortune of being married to Lisette and was therefore closely connected to her music and ongoing passion for access to music through Braille. Promoting the causes which mattered to Lisette has been important to Neil since her death. He views it as continuing the role of supporting her work while she was alive. Neil shares Lisette’s deep commitment to enabling blind musicians to have the opportunity to shine, and believes that a full understanding of Braille music is one of the keys to success.
Ken Joblin
Ken is in touch with Braille music almost daily. He directs adult and children’s choirs, is bass section leader in the Christchurch Catholic Cathedral Choir and a Church organist, playing for services every weekend. All of this requires Ken to be fluent and at ease in reading Braille scores, allowing him to credibly interact with others. Much of Ken’s work is paid, so having Braille music literacy helps him earn a living in a way that brings him (and others) a lot of joy.
One thrill of Braille music literacy is that it allows him to read new music alongside his sighted colleagues. Even with a good musical ear, there is no way he could memorise the volume of music he sings without being able to read it. Ken’s opportunities for singing and other music are enhanced because of it.
Ken is forever grateful to Louis Braille for developing the concept of Braille music, to his teachers who saw the need for him to learn it and for many people who have welcomed his expertise because they could hear that, alongside his natural talent, he was musically literate and therefore, an equal member of the team.
Moya Michalakis
Moya has been a Braille music transcriber for over 25 years and absolutely loves her work and the friendships and contacts she has made during that time. She has been thrilled to witness the progress of youngsters becoming proficient independent musicians, many of whom have forged careers through their music. She also loves preparing scores for adult members of choirs and orchestras, and sometimes receiving a recording of the performance. The ingenious Braille music code still amazes her, with its ability to represent every detail of a score.
As a member of the ICEB Music committee, Moya enjoys constructive discussion with fellow Braille transcribers around the world. In her spare time, Moya enjoys being with family, playing piano duets with grandchildren, and learning to play the cello.
Dr Wendy Richards
Dr Wendy Richards started working with young learners who are blind in 1999 teaching piano and Braille music. She soon developed a passion for music literacy through Braille and recognised that a unique set of skills and cognitive functions are necessary for successful music making through Braille. This led her to pursue further study in this area and in 2020 she completed doctorate research with a thesis titled Music Braille Pedagogy: the Intersection of Blindness, Braille, Music Learning Theory, and Laban. Wendy has presented at conferences in NZ, Australia, Germany, and America. She continues to work in this exciting area of music education at Blind and Low Vision Education Network New Zealand (BLENNZ) while also collaborating on a range of projects with adult musicians who use Braille.