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French As part of the podcast series, “ArtsAbly in Conversation,” Diane Kolin interviewed Alexia McLean, a saxophonist, an educator, and a disability rights advocate from Houston, Texas.
This post presents the resources that Alexia McLean mentioned during the conversation.
Alexia McLean
Alexia McLean (she/her) is a saxophonist dedicated to closing equity gaps and enhancing inclusion in the music community. As an IDEA Arts Advocate and disability rights champion, she has advanced Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility in the music world, presenting at North American Saxophone Alliance Conferences. At Louisiana State University, Alexia founded the Diversity & Inclusion Student Organization and served as Faculty Advisor. She is a certified Safe Space Member and holds DEI and Inclusive Leadership certificates from the University of South Florida. Alexia holds a Master of Music from LSU and a Bachelor of Music Performance from the University of North Florida, studying under Griffin Campbell, Michael Bovenzi, and Jeremy Williamson.
Learn more on Alexia McLean’s website
JacobTV (Jacob ter Veldhuis)
Dutch ‘avant pop’ composer JacobTV (Jacob ter Veldhuis, 1951) started as a rock musician and studied composition and electronic music with Luctor Ponse and Willem Frederik Bon at the Groningen Conservatoire. JacobTV’s so-called Boombox repertoire, for live instruments with a grooving sound track based on speech melody, became internationally popular. With around 1000 world wide performances a year, JacobTV is nowadays one of the most performed European composers.
RAMPD
RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities) is a professional platform equipping the music and live entertainment industry with disability inclusive tools, programming and strategy. RAMPD also connects the industry to a global directory of peer-vetted music/sound creators and industry professionals with disabilities, neurodivergence and other chronic or mental health conditions, to find source and hire—bringing competitive opportunities, visibility and community to our Professional Members while offering disability inclusion to Industry/Venue partners. RAMPD’s Mission is to amplify Disability Culture, promote equitable inclusion, and advocate for inclusive and accessible spaces in the music and live entertainment industries. Founded in May of 2021 (and established January 2022) by award-winning recording artist and cultural activist Lachi, RAMPD came about after a public talk between the Recording Academy and several disabled artists revealed the serious lack of visibility, access, and representation for music professionals with disabilities.
Visit Alexia McLean’s RAMPD profile
Tuning Your Resilience: Interview with Rebecca Wirth
Alexia McLean is a member of the Committee on Gender Equity mentoring program in the North American Saxophone Alliance. One of her mentees, Rebecca Wirth, a third-year student studying saxophone performance at Furman University, developed a guide titled “Tuning Your Resilience: A Musician’s Disability Guide” for her community project. Rebecca shared the guide with ArtsAbly and answered a few questions.
Read the interview and the guide on ArtsAbly’s website
Lachi
Lachi is a singer-songwriter, touring performer, producer, actress, author, disability advocate and cultural activist based in New York City. Lachi’s music is often described as Pop or Dance music. She is legally blind, due to Coloboma. Throughout 2021 and 2022, Lachi established herself as a go-to disability advocate in the music industry, speaking with and performing at places like the White House, the United Nations, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and the BBC, among other notable appearances. Lachi is the founder of RAMPD. Starting in 2022, RAMPD began partnering with the Recording Academy to help make the Grammy Awards more accessible: working to add a visibly ramped dais, Sign language interpreters, live captioning, and Audio description, American Sign Language and ramps on the red carpet. In February 2024, Lachi was named a 2024 Woman of the Year by USA Today.