A resident of Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts, Dan Ellsey has cerebral palsy and does not walk or speak. He does, however, write and play his own music, and mentor others, through a groundbreaking music system developed by MIT's Tod Machover and his team, including grad student Adam Boulanger. Working closely with this team, Ellsey helped to develop and fine-tune a head-mounted interface, tweaked to respond to his movements, that allows him to compose music and to conduct nuanced performances of his work. Hyperscore software helps Ellsey notate his musical ideas.

Ellsey's work has been performed at MIT, on the radio and at workshops around the Boston area. The Lowell Symphony Orchestra performed his piece "Our Musically" at a 2004 concert for residents of Tewksbury -- many of whom count Ellsey as a mentor in their own musical education.

Music