A TALENTED musician and the founder of two arts organisations set up to help people with learning disabilities has died, aged 61.
Peter Charles Shelton, of Tansley, set up Action Space London Events in 1980 and First Movement in 1988.
The organisations were designed to allow people to create vibrant original art through music, visual, performing arts and creative new art forms.
In 2008, Mr Shelton created the Level Centre, an arts centre in Rowsley, Matlock.
Mr Shelton was born in Leicester to George and Joyce Shelton. He had one older brother, Ian. He attended Wyggeston Boys' Grammar School, where he became house music captain, and also took leading roles in school dramatic productions in the sixth form.
He excelled in maths and music and was taught piano by the legendary Leicester accompanist, Frederick Allt.
At the age of four, he composed his first piece of music, starting a lifelong dedication to the arts.
Largely self-taught, Mr Shelton played an active role on several committees such as Culture East Midlands, as chair of Creative Partnerships and in other major arts organisations in Derby and beyond.
In later years, he developed his own video and sound installations and performance art, exhibiting in the UK, in Istanbul, Turkey and at the Sokolowska Festival of Ephemeral Art in Poland.
Mr Shelton was an innovative musician, part of an experimental group called Ensemble 8 for many years and also developed his own music.
In the past three years, alongside his daughter, Leila Bagnall, he completed a life-long ambition to see all the operatic works of Wagner.
And in May 2014, he was included in The Independent on Sunday's Happy List, acknowledging the impact his work had on the happiness of many people.
With shrewd integrity, Mr Shelton enacted his old school motto translated as "work and honour" and combined it with a great capacity for friendship.
He is survived by his partner of 36 years, Caroline Bagnall, and his two daughters, Sarah Bagnall and Leila Bagnall.
A celebration of his life took place at The Level Centre in Rowsley.
Any donations are requested to be made to First Movement, an arts charity for learning disabled people which works across the East Midlands.
