31-year-old Tvedt is now excelling in the singing competition The Voice on TV 2. He is also far from new to the subject. The music education already started with a music track at upper secondary school, later folk high school and then bachelor and master at Norway’s music college. But because he is blind, his studies were not quite like those of other singing students. He says that the lack of inclusion made him constantly feel unprepared. Thomas Tvedt is known from the singing competition The Voice on TV 2. Here together with mentor Ina Wroldsen. Photo: Thomas Andersen / TV 2 – The others got sheet music, I got nothing – You depend on reading sheet music to learn what you need to when you’re going to sing in a choir, or when you’re going to play in an orchestra and rehearse new material . You are also dependent on having sheet music written in various subjects, for choir, band and orchestra, he says. Few people know anything about the solutions that exist for the blind. – And they usually do not attend higher education in Norway. Thomas Tvedt attended the Norwegian Academy of Music from 2012 and took both a bachelor’s and master’s degree there. Photo: Kristin Granbo / news When he had to rehearse music from Rachmaninov for a large choral project, he only received the sheet music several months after the project was over. – I am probably the first in the world to have sung that entire choral work without singing a single Russian word. It was because the others got notes, I got nothing. Thomas Tvedt says that several times he had to find other ways to learn, but that it took longer than for the others, so that he often felt unprepared next to his fellow students. – Do not think that they can become artists. Tvedt is not the only one who has experienced art education as difficult for someone with a disability. Education is one of the biggest barriers to becoming an artist, shows a new report from the Norwegian Directorate of Culture. – Becoming an artist with disabilities is difficult as of 2023, because there is too little knowledge in education about people with disabilities and how to make art with several types of bodies. That’s what Elen Øyen says. She is a dance artist herself, she sits in a wheelchair and has now helped write the report. Art education does not consider that people with disabilities can become artists, says Elen Øyen. Photo: Mari Vattøy/Trollheimsporten – There is a lack of Braille for people with visual impairments, a lack of physical facilities, it is difficult to get into the institutions and the various lecture halls can be far apart. On the dance courses, the dance is adapted to functional normative bodies, says Øyen. The report shows that there are low expectations for these people and that the education programs do not consider that people with disabilities can also live as artists. An expert in being blind, not a study expert Thomas Tvedt started his education in 2012 at the Norwegian Academy of Music. He found that the school and those who worked there were benevolent and keen to ask him what he needed. – But the problem is that even though I’m blind and know what it’s like, I’d never been a music student before. I can say something about what I think I need as a blind person, but I can’t say what I really need as a blind music student. It is despairing. Sidsel Karlsen is vice-rector at the Norwegian School of Music and head of the school’s committee for diversity and equality. She tells news that she understands that Tvedt felt that the education was not optimally adapted to his needs. – We work continuously with such adaptation, and have recently worked actively with the universal design of teaching aids and have come further in this work now than when Tvedt was a student with us. Thomas Tvedt is the first blind person to perform in the Norwegian version of The Voice. He also felt that he was the first in music education, even though he was not, because little was arranged for him. Photo: Thomas Andersen / TV 2 Thomas Tvedt was not the first person with a visual impairment who had attended the education, but nevertheless experienced that he was. – There are several who have studied there who cannot see, but I experienced in a practical way that I was the first. There was a lot that felt like the first time we were trying this out. And by the time they found solutions, he had almost finished his education, he says. – Hope they get their act together In the report to the Norwegian Directorate of Culture, they write that schools must prepare action plans that include people with disabilities. Tvedt says he hopes this can lead to the art educations “getting together a bit”. – That they meet and share experiences. They must have a plan for the student to be able to have as efficient a study day as possible, so that time is spent on the studies and not on the preparation, that is the point here. Thomas Tvedt sang for the judges in The Voice, and got through in what became a true blind audition. He will perform again on the live broadcast on May 5.
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As a singing student, Thomas Tvedt received sheet music several months after the concerts were over, because he was blind – news Culture and entertainment
