Jazz Promoter Fellowship Announced by Help Musicians UK

Help Musicians UK have announced their new Jazz Promoters Fellowship in partnership with award-winning composer Issie Barratt.

From the Help Musicians UK website...

This fully-funded HMUK Fellowship has been developed out of the need to create a gender balance within the jazz scene in the UK and provide a framework for best practice in training for promoters. The move has been supported by industry leaders across the sector.

Recent evidence—from Issie’s extensive four-year research project—shows that women are hugely underrepresented in jazz, often excluded from performance opportunities, rarely booked as often as their male counterparts, and infrequently considered in development initiatives.

The Fellowship will aim to change perceptions and create a new, inclusive jazz landscape. It will focus on equipping the next generation of male and female promoters for a career in the industry by working closely with many of the UK’s best jazz promoters, venues and festival directors.

By the end of this Fellowship's pilot year (July 2018), participants will have had invaluable opportunities in order to deliver a year-long personal project aimed at addressing the equality gap.

Key opportunities of the programme include:
• Seven seminar days hosted at key points in the jazz calendar
• Development of a promoter’s job description and toolkit
• Monthly tutorials
• Mentoring from leading experts and peers
• Participation in roundtable discussions
• Devising and delivering a year-long self-initiated project

Applications are being accepted until July 7th 2017 and successful applicants will be notified in late July.

For more information and to apply, visit the Help Musicians UK website.

Applications Now Open for Peter Whittingham Award

Help Musicians UK have this week announced that applications are now being accepted for the Peter Whittingham Award.

Open to solo artists and ensembles in the first two years of their professional careers or in higher education, the award offers a £5,000 grant to support an important creative project.

Claire Gevaux, Creative Director at Help Musicians UK said, “The continued support of the Whittingham Family through this unique award allows us to invest in the next generation of jazz musicians, helping the most talented artists through these formative and crucial stages of their career. We can’t wait to see the incredible standard of applications and know that our esteemed panel of experts will have an enjoyable challenge in finding the winner.” 

In recent years, the award has been given to Patchwork Jazz Orchestra (pictured above), Square One, Phil Meadows, Roller Trio, Soweto Kinch and more. (You'll notice some Northern favourites popping up on that list!)

Applications will be accepted until Friday 11th November at 5pm. Auditions will take place in London on Friday 9th December. 

For full information and find out more about the projects the award has helped to support, visit the Help Musicians UK website.

Deadline Extended on Help Musicians UK Development Bursaries

Help Musicians UK have announced that they are extending the deadline for applications to their Career Development Burasary scheme until 23rd September 2016.

The bursary fund is open to emerging professional musicians aged between 21 and 35 primarily based in the UK. Grants of between £500 and £2000 are available to support activities which will have a significant impact on musical development. This could include -

• Participation in masterclasses, academies and short courses (such as residential programmes at Aspen Music School, Yale, Lucerne Festival Academy and Banff Centre)
• A time-limited period of mentoring with a leading expert in your field, focused on specific repertoire or technique
• Travel for research and creative collaboration
• A short period of intensive coaching with a world-class tutor in advance of a major performance or project

A large number of jazz and improvising musicians have already benefited from this support including Radek Rudnicki, Lilli Unwin, Alex Roth, Sam Gardner, Sam Vicary and Elliot Galvin.

To apply and for full information, visit the Help Musicians UK website
 

Protect your ears with the Musicians Hearing Health Scheme

Help Musicians UK and the Musicians' Union have teamed up with Musicians' Hearing Services to offer subsidised hearing tests and custom fitted earplugs to professional musicians across the country.

By applying to the scheme, musicians will be able to access specialist care for a one-off price of £30 (£40 for non-MU members). The offer includes -

• An audiological assessment and ear check-up (worth £145)
• One set of custom made, specialist musicians' earplugs (worth £170)
• An automatic call back for a subsidised hearing test every two years (costs £20, worth £90)

The scheme comes as a result of a 2015 hearing survey conducted by Help Musicians UK which highlighted a need felt by musicians for advice on how to protect hearing. The scheme is open to any professional musician, regardless of age, genre or instrument.

For full information and to apply for the scheme, visit the Help Musicians UK website.

Three Northern artists selected for Take Five scheme

The participants of this year's Take Five career development scheme have been announced this week and the list features three Northern musicians.

8 musicians were selected by Serious to take part in the scheme which aims to support emerging jazz talent and provide mentorship in the music industry.

Guitarists Craig Scott and Anton Hunter made the cut, as did North East vocalist Zoe Gilby.

From Help Musicians UK

Take Five Edition XI will run until the summer of 2016 and provides participants with one-to-one mentoring sessions to address their particular areas of need, as well a residential period exploring areas such as composition, performance, communications, business infrastructure and strategic direction. 

Help Musicians UK Talent Programme Manager Tim Foxon says: “The impact of Take Five: UK on this country’s jazz scene over the last decade has been incredible. It supports some of the most exciting creative musicians at a crucial point in their careers, with truly tangible results. We are thrilled to be a partner for this vital scheme and to see another impressive group of artists selected for Edition XI”.

Congratulations to Craig, Anton and Zoe as well as all the other musicians selected! Look out for their names appearing at venues near you...

Take Five XI

• Moses Boyd (drums, London)
• Elliot Galvin (piano, London)
• Zoe Gilby (vocals, Gateshead)
• Anton Hunter (guitar, Manchester)
• Hyelim Kim (taegŭm, London)
• Zara McFarlane (vocals, London)
• Cath Roberts (saxophone, London)
• Craig Scott (guitar, Leeds)

Calling All Emerging Jazz Talent - Peter Whittingham Award 2016

Help Musicians UK have opened submissions for the 2016 Peter Whittingham Award, marking its 25th year supporting emerging jazz talent in the UK.

The award is presented each year to a musician or ensemble to support a career-building project with a cash prize of £5,000. An expert in survival medicine, Peter Whittingham was also a pianist who enjoyed the music of Gershwin, Porter, Sondheim, Bernstein, Shearing and Peterson. After his death in 1987 his family set up this award in his memory – and their connection with the award continues.

In recent years, musicians from the North have dominated the recipient list - Roller Trio, Reuben Fowler, Phil Meadows and Stretch Trio (pictured above) from 2011 to 2014.

Auditions will be held at Premises Studio in Hackney, London on December 2nd and the deadline for applications is Monday 2nd November at 6pm.The award is open to musicians in the first two years of their professional careers or those in higher education.

For more information, visit the Help Musicians UK website.
 

New Funding Platform for Emerging Musicians

Help Musicians UK have announced their latest funding source for emerging professional musicians - Career Development Bursaries. This fund offers bursaries between £500-£2000 to musicians between 21 - 30 or to those who have completed their full time music studies within the last 5 years.

Applicants can apply for funds to assist them with activities which would have a significant impact on their career. These include -

Masterclasses and short courses
Time-limited period of study with an expert in your field
Short period of intensive coaching ahead of a major performance or project

This kind of activity was previously funded through their Emerging Excellence Awards; recently Help Musicians UK split the fund into two parts - this one focused on career development and mentoring and the Emerging Artist Fund focused on working with crowdfunding to support album releases etc.

The deadline for applications for the first round of the career development bursaries is 18th September 2015, with another later in the year (20th November 2015).

Details on how to apply and full guidelines on the scheme can be found on their website.

Help Musicians UK Launches New Funding Scheme for Emerging Talent

Help Musicians UK have launched a new funding scheme in partnership with PledgeMusic to support artists at the early stages of their professional careers.

This £50,000 fund will go toward supporting artists and ensembles who have an engaged fan base and are at a turning point in their career but do not currently receive funding from any third-party sources. Those successful will receive support from Help Musicians UK if they hit their target on the crowd-funding platform PledgeMusic.

Tim Foxon, Talent Programme Manager says: In a challenging funding landscape, we’ve been looking at new ways to channel much-needed support to musicians in the early stages of their careers. We’re thrilled to be working with Pledge Music to identify some exciting upcoming acts for whom we hope this investment will make a significant impact.

Paul Barton PledgeMusic UK MD says: “Teaming up with Help Musicians UK ideally fits the PledgeMusic ethos every which way. The direct-to-fan model that PledgeMusic offers new, emerging artists and bands is an entry route into a career in music and from day 1, PledgeMusic has incorporated charity work and contributions into its campaigns. Working with Help Musicians UK is a most welcome expansion of this principle.

Applications are welcomed from now until May 29th and there are two further rounds with deadlines of August 31st and 30th November.

There is comprehensive information on how to apply and eligibility criteria on the Help Musicians UK website and you can find out more about their partnership on the PledgeMusic website.

Peter Whittingham Award 2014

                                       Phil Meadows, winner of 2013 Peter Whittingham Award

Help Musicians UK has opened applications for the 2014 Peter Whittingham Award, a professional development award focused on emerging jazz musicians.

The £4,000 grant is given to jazz musicians in the first two years of their professional career or studying a full-time high education music course. Previous recipients of the award have included Phil Meadows (pictured), Roller Trio, Soweto Kinch and Led Bib amongst others.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 7th November at 5.00pm. Auditions will be held in London on Thursday 4th December.

See the Help Musicians UK website for more information and read about their other projects.

LCoM Alumni Wins Emerging Excellence Award

Pianist Sam Watts, a graduate of Leeds College of Music, has been announced as a recipient of an Emerging Excellence Award from Help Musicians UK.

Sam, who moved to London to study a Masters at Royal Academy of Music after graduating from LCoM, is one of two jazz musicians to receive the award this year. He will use the funding to help produce his debut album in the coming months.

The Emerging Excellence Awards are run by Help Musicians UK and help musicians under 30 who have already achieved recognition in their field to fund a project that will further their career.

Sam joins saxophonist James Mainwaring and trumpeter Kim Macari as LCoM graduates to have received the Award in recent years.

Find out more about Sam by visiting his website.