Duke Special among musicians awarded grants to purchase new instruments

Composer Duke Special is among a number of Northern Ireland performers who have been awarded funding from a programme aimed at helping musicians replace old worn-out instruments and purchase new ones.

The Belfast-based songwriter is to use his grant to buy a type of electro-mechanical instrument once used to create the sound of The Beatles.

Twenty professional musicians are sharing in an investment of £101,990 from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s Musical Instruments Programme for individual artists.

The capital funding for the programme has been provided by Stormont’s Department for Communities.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons met some of the musicians this week at the Ulster Museum.

He said: “It is great to meet some of the local musical talent who will benefit from these grants and to hear about how this scheme will support their careers.

“From classical musicians and composers for films to the unique sounds of Duke Special, this grant will help bolster the local music scene as it continues to stand out on the global stage.

“I look forward to the compositions to come and hope this funding will help inspire a new generation of musicians.”

Composer Peter Wilson, known professionally as Duke Special, has been awarded £5,033 to purchase a Mellotron M4000D, an electro-mechanical musical instrument which preceded the synthesiser.

The instrument became popular in progressive rock and The Beatles used it on tracks including Strawberry Fields Forever.

The digital expansion cards with this instrument contain hundreds of additional sounds including drum loops and musical passages derived from the Optigan, a lesser-known vintage sampler.

Wilson intends to use the instrument to write songs for a new theatre piece to be commissioned by the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.

Musician and harpist Anne Harper has been awarded £6,692.88 to buy a Dusty Strings FH 36 S harp in maple with camac strings.

Ms Harper has performed across classical and traditional genres of music, both Irish traditional and Ulster Scots, as well as working for ArtsCare NI as a music facilitator and storyteller, based in County Down. She has been designing and leading musical workshops since 2015.

Songwriter Chris Bateman from Ballymena, who has been awarded £2,500 to buy a high-quality acoustic guitar and to develop his composition and performance skills. He performs under the name Batesy.

Gilly Campbell, joint director of arts development at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland said: “This important scheme will help support the work and careers of individual artists with grants to buy or replace instruments.

“Northern Ireland is renowned across the world for its musical talent.

“This funding will help support that legacy, benefiting many performers across a broad range of genres including classical, jazz, traditional, contemporary and electronic music.”

Further grants in the programme will be allocated to bands and professional and non-professional performing groups later this month.