What is the Headspace instrument?
Headspace is a virtual instrument. Its sounds are created through a computer using a massive sound-bank. In 1999, Carnyx & Co. received funding from the Diageo Foundation to commission composer and sonic inventor Rolf Gehlhaar (1943 – 2019) to develop a new musical instrument for Clarence Adoo, a leading trumpeter. Clarence was left paralysed from the neck down following a car accident in 1995. See link
Our challenge was to enable Clarence to re-engage with fellow performers at the highest professional level. HeadSpace is a highly sophisticated, powerful electronic musical instrument. It is controlled by subtle movements of the player’s head, coupled with small but delicate, precise air columns. This has given Clarence the opportunity to express himself once again as a professional musician.
HeadSpace is controlled by subtle movements of the player’s head, coupled with small but delicate and precise air columns. It has been an extremely significant part of Clarence’s rehabilitation, and has facilitated his return to performing.
HeadSpace Ensemble
In 2005 HeadSpace received its first public airing at the St Magnus Festival on Orkney. Festival Director, Ian Ritchie, commissioned John Kenny to compose a piece to explore the new instrument invented by Rolf Gehlhaar. Kenny scored his piece for the HeadSpace instrument with trumpet doubling flugelhorn, trombone doubling carnyx, and live electronics.
Since 2006 this group of artists has gone on to develop new repertoire under the name of HeadSpace Ensemble, comprising: Clarence Adoo on HeadSpace, Torbjorn Hultmark on trumpet and flugelhorn, John Kenny on trombone and carnyx, and Chris Wheeler as sound designer.
Following their debut at the St Magnus Festival, the group has appeared at Sage Gateshead, the City of London Festival and three tours of Portugal. They have also featured at the Cumnock Tryst festival, directed by Sir James MacMillan, and at a sell-out collaboration with the Wynton Marsalis quartet at the London Barbican Centre.
In 2021 they collaborated with composer Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian to create multi-media film collaboration, Cap-O-Rushes which premiered at the 2021 UK Culture, Health & Wellbeing International Conference. The group’s repertoire includes music by Nigel Osborne, Rolf Gehlhaar, John Kenny and Torbjorn Hultmark.
The performers:
Clarence Adoo developed a passion for music at an early age, joining the Young People’s Salvation Army band at six as a cornet player. He studied trumpet at the Royal College of Music, becoming a busy freelance musician playing a diverse range of styles including Cliff Richard, West End shows, jazz with Courtney Pine, the London Sinfonietta, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic.
In 1992, Clarence moved to Newcastle to become a member of the Royal Northern Sinfonia. However, in 1995 he was involved in a tragic car accident, which left him paralysed from the neck down. It appeared that his musical career was over, until the development of the HeadSpace instrument. Clarence explains:
“The headset I am wearing has sensors either side and when I move my head it moves a mouse on the screen- the blow tube down the side of the headset works as the left click of the mouse and the blowing activates different sounds and notes”.
The Headspace instrument has been an extremely significant part of Clarence’s rehabilitation and has facilitated his return to performing. In addition to the HeadSpace Ensemble, Clarence is a founder member of the ParaOrchestra, which was voted by the Performing Rights Society as Britain’s Best Orchestra for 2025. He was also involved in starting up the Royal Northern Sinfonia Inclusive Orchestra, which performs concerts throughout the year. Working alongside Open Orchestra and National Open Orchestra Clarence worked on “Clarion”, which is a simplified instrument based on Headspace. This allows many young people from special needs schools an access to music. Clarence has taken part in television, radio programmes and discussion panels around the world.
In recognition of his services to music and the way he has inspired people since his accident, Clarence has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Northumbria University, Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Music, and an MBE. Clarence Adoo and the HeadSpace instrument were featured in the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Paralympics as well as at a recent TED-X presentation in Brussels.
Torbjörn Hultmark is a Swedish/British musician, composer and teacher based in London His playing career has taken him to 25 countries with orchestras and ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, as well as film and TV session work and as a soloist including on BBC Radio 3 and with the BBC Philharmonic. Torbörn is a teacher and ensemble coach at the Junior Department of the Royal College of Music. Published by Composers Edition, Brass Wind Publications, his music has been performed extensively and recorded on CD as well as broadcast in Britain and worldwide. Torbörn is at the forefront of the development and performance of new music involving improvisation and live electronics.
Martin Parker first performed with HeadSpace Ensemble in 2016 at a festival and conference held at the Casa da Música in Porto. Following this, Martin assisted Rolf Gehlhaar with software development and programming of the HeadSpace instrument and has been full time sound projectionist with the ensemble since the 2021 multimedia production Cap O’ Rushes, filmed at Brancepeth Castle, County Durham. As a composer, improviser and soloist with laptop, his work focuses on encounters between computers, people and places. Based in Edinburgh, he has performed and collaborated internationally with theatre companies, symphony orchestras, visual artists and ensembles. Martin has been Artistic Director of Edinburgh’s Dialogues Festival and is Academic Director of the University of Edinburgh’s MSc in Sound Design.
