Jess Fisher, who uses a controller attached to her wheelchair to create original music, has won the Emerging Artist Award at this year’s regional Mighty Creatives Award ceremony.

Jess, a member of the acclaimed Able Orchestra, has performed alongside The BBC Philharmonic at BBC Proms in 2016, as well as with world-renowned beatboxer THePETEBOX at the Nottingham Contemporary with players from the Hallé Orchestra.

She also took to the stage in solo performances at ShowFest19 at Mansfield Palace Theatre and at this year’s Sound Stage Festival at Nottingham’s newest music venue, Metronome, where she performed her new audio and visual piece called Time Stood Still.

Her uniquely-designed wheelchair motion controller is hooked up to specially developed software created by Music Producer Si Tew, which enables her to create music and manipulate digital projection for performance.

Jess, pictured above with the award, is a student at Portland College and is hoping to become a mentor for the next series of Able Orchestra projects, supporting other young people to create and play music. This work will help to develop the controller even further.

The Able Orchestra project has been developed across the Mansfield area and is co-produced by Inspire Youth Arts (part of Inspire Culture, Learning and Libraries; a community benefit society) and Orchestras Live, a national music charity and producer.