Anna Nicotra
Musical Accessibility and Inclusive Practices:
A Research Journey Through Technologies, Gestural Languages and Inclusion
The Origins: From a Personal Need to a Research Question
The research project originates from a direct experience: my condition as a blind musician confronted me, from my early studies at the conservatoire, with the concrete difficulties in accessing musical scores. Braille music has existed for almost two centuries, yet it remains fragmented, scarcely available and poorly integrated into contemporary teaching practices. Blind musicians often find themselves isolated, dependent on commissioned transcriptions that require lengthy timescales and high costs, unable to sight-read, lacking adequate repertoire especially for complex genres such as jazz.
This condition of marginalisation is not merely technical, but cultural: the idea that a blind person can study music at a high level is still perceived as exceptional, when it should instead be the norm. From this arose the central question of my research: how can we make music genuinely accessible? How can we overcome the barriers that still today limit the autonomy and full participation of blind musicians?
The answer to these questions could not be limited to the individual sphere. I understood that a systemic intervention was necessary, one that combined technology, training and cultural change. My PhD is situated in this horizon: it is not only research on Braille music, but research on inclusion as a musical and pedagogical practice. It is an attempt to build material and symbolic infrastructures that enable blind musicians to exist fully in the space of contemporary music.
The MUVIE Project: Building a European Infrastructure for Musical Accessibility
The operational heart of my research is the European Erasmus+ project MUVIE (MUsic for Visually Impaired people in Europe), which began in November 2024 and is funded for three years. MUVIE involves partners from four countries (Italy, Germany, Cyprus and Poland) and aims to create an accessible digital platform that collects musical scores in Braille format, accompanied by innovative software tools for reading, navigating and autonomous study of music.
In the first year, I played a central role in the development of the project. I developed five questionnaires aimed at students, teachers, parents, professional musicians and libraries, distributed in four languages and administered at European level. This survey enabled us to map the real needs of users, highlighting common critical issues: the scarcity of available materials, the complexity of existing software, the isolation of blind students in musical institutions. The data collected were analysed and systematised in a report that constitutes the empirical basis for the development of the project’s tools.
In parallel, I contributed to the drafting of the state-of-the-art document, a European mapping of resources, projects and existing good practices in the field of musical accessibility. This reconnaissance work highlighted how dispersed and poorly shared knowledge is: there are Braille libraries, software, teaching methods, but connections, common standards and visibility are lacking.
Another fundamental activity was the creation of the conversion table for jazz chords in Braille. Jazz, with its harmonic complexity and the presence of chord symbols, represents one of the most difficult aspects for Braille notation.
I analysed over 500 graphic symbols, selected 140 essential chords and created the corresponding Braille notation, integrating this work into the Braille Music Editor software (BM2025). This contribution significantly expanded the possibilities for accessing jazz music for blind students.
In the second year, from November 2025 to the present, work has focused on the production of training materials and the validation of tools. I oversaw the creation of video lessons on the history of Braille writing and musical notation, aimed at teachers, educators and students. I also added 50 musical pieces to the project’s digital library, expanding the available repertoire. A crucial activity was the testing of the voice command system and artificial intelligence for navigating scores, verifying their usability and reporting technical issues to the programmers.
MUVIE is not just technology: it is an attempt to build a European community of inclusive practices, to create spaces for dialogue among musicians, educators, developers. I have participated in international conferences (ICEVI in Padua, AAATE in Nicosia), presented papers and posters, held masterclasses in Italy and abroad. Each dissemination opportunity has also been a listening opportunity: listening to those who teach music to blind people, who develop software, who study special pedagogy. This dialogic dimension is essential for me, because inclusion is not done alone, but in networks.
Inclusive Musical Direction: Towards Accessible Languages in Improvisation
Alongside the work on MUVIE, my PhD has developed a second research axis: inclusive musical direction. The starting question is simple: how can a blind person conduct an ensemble in improvisation? Butch Morris’s Conduction and Walter Thompson’s Soundpainting are extraordinary gestural languages, but they are based entirely on sight. How can they be adapted? How can we create alternatives that are not mere compensations, but new expressive forms?
In the first year, I studied these languages by participating in workshops with Daniela Veronesi, Stefano Battaglia, Walter Thompson. I experienced being conducted, but also conducting, experimenting with the difficulties and possibilities. I interviewed Italian musicians and conductors (Silvia Bolognesi, Luca Perciballi, Nino Locatelli, Pasquale Mirra, Angelo Urso, Carmelo Coglitore), gathering testimonies about their practices, the philosophy underlying these languages, their experiences in educational and inclusive contexts.
From these experiences, an awareness emerged: the introduction of sound signals instead of visual gestures is not a simple translation, but involves complex musical and communicative choices. Sounds risk being confused with the music itself, slowing down communication, overlapping with the improvisational flow. However, they also represent a possibility: that of creating a shared language, perceivable by everyone in the same way, without need for intermediaries.
In the second year, I began a phase of practical experimentation. I constructed an initial system of sound signals, based on four percussion instruments (cowbell, low woodblock, high woodblock, Tibetan bell), used to indicate articulations (sustained sound, short sound, free improvisation, closure) and ensemble sections. The first trials, conducted with small groups of musicians, highlighted limits and potential: the signals work, but require attentive listening and can be confused when the group’s dynamics are high.
A breakthrough came from the experience in Amsterdam, where I experimented with using the piano for conducting. By dividing the keyboard into timbral zones (low, medium-low, medium, medium-high, high), I indicated individual musicians by improvising in those areas, integrating the directive gesture with musical dialogue. This mode proved more fluid and musical, but raises new questions: how can it be adapted to other instruments? How can it remain effective in larger ensembles? How can we balance the role of conductor with that of improviser?
This research is not only technical: it is a reflection on power, communication, the relationship between body and sound. Conducting means choosing who plays, when, how. But in collective improvisation, direction is also an art of listening, of welcoming error, of shared construction. My objective is not to create a perfect system of signals, but to explore the possibilities of inclusive direction, in which those who cannot see can also guide, dialogue, compose in real time.
Future Prospects: From Emergency to Normality
In the coming months, work on MUVIE will enter its most delicate phase: piloting. The developed tools (the digital library, the Braille Music Reader, the AI tools for navigation and fingering) will be tested in schools in Cyprus, Italy and Poland. It will be a moment of field verification, of comparison with students and teachers, of gathering feedback to improve the tools. In parallel, dissemination will continue through multiplier events, masterclasses, publications.
On the musical direction front, I intend to continue experimentation, working with stable ensembles to refine the system of signals. I am reflecting on whether to concentrate on small groups, where the piano can function as an instrument of dialogic direction, or to develop a more robust system of percussive signals, designed for larger orchestras. I have not yet decided: this uncertainty is part of the research process, it is the space of exploration.
Another line I would like to develop concerns the reconnaissance of Braille musical collections in Italian conservatoires. During the project, I discovered that many libraries possess collections donated by former students or blind musicians, often not catalogued nor accessible. In collaboration with IAML-Italia and with the support of Federica Riva, I would like to map these resources, digitise them and integrate them into the MUVIE library, restoring visibility to a dispersed historical heritage.
But beyond specific objectives, what animates this journey is a broader vision: the idea that inclusion is not an emergency to be managed, but a constitutive dimension of musical practice. I would like for ten years from now, no one to be surprised to see a blind person studying jazz at the conservatoire, conducting an orchestra, teaching improvisation. I would like Braille scores to be available with the same ease with which one downloads a PDF today. I would like music teachers to be trained not only in instrumental techniques, but also in inclusive practices.
This PhD is a small step in that direction. It is an attempt to build infrastructures, to create languages, to open spaces. But it is also, profoundly, a political act: affirming that music belongs to everyone, that accessibility is not a favour but a right, that inclusion does not take anything away from anyone, but enriches everyone. My research starts from me, from my body, from my experience. But it does not end there. It ends, if it ends, when it has become superfluous.