PRS Foundation for New Music

4 Jul 2006 in Music, Orkney

A Passion for New Music

CHARLOTTE RAY outlines the work of the PRS Foundation for New Music in the Highlands & Islands, and invites both funding applications and feedback

LOOK AMONG the crowds at any arts festival – in this case the recent St Magnus Festival – and as well as performers, organisers, audience members and volunteers, will be many whose professional lives are concerned with promoting or supporting the work of the artists and the organisations involved.

Charlotte Ray, Foundation Manager for the PRS Foundation for New Music, is a member of that all-important group. Charlotte was in Orkney for the recent festival, and here she describes the work of the Foundation, which as she says, regards St Magnus as one of the ‘top 5’ festivals in the country in its dedication to new music.

The PRS Foundation supports a huge range of new music activity, including much in the north of Scotland – everything from unsigned band showcases to residencies for music creators, from ground-breaking commissions to live electronica – and they are proud of the fact that they make the application process as straightforward as possible.

As befits any organisation connected with music, they’re good listeners, and as the article says, would be keen to hear your views.

Alistair Peebles

MUSIC FESTIVALS often provide a real focus for new talent. This year, St Magnus Festival has shown itself again to be a hot-bed of creativity. The PRS Foundation for New Music is proud to have provided some funding to support the Festival.

In its 29th year, St Magnus Festival is thriving creatively and we see it as one of the ‘top 5’ festivals in the country in its dedication to new music. How do we judge this?

From first arriving, it was apparent that music-fever had gripped the islands

We have developed an outline to gauge new music festivals by, and we give our support to festivals which have a strong track record of programming new music by music creators who live and work in the UK; are innovative and adventurous in their programming and presentation; focus on showcasing new repertoire or songwriting talent or unsigned bands’ are aiming to present new music in an understandable and exciting way, developing and nurturing as wide an audience as possible for this music; encourage composition and songwriting projects, workshops or masterclasses’ and are non-commercial festivals (ie registered charities or not for profit festivals).

In visiting Orkney this year, it was apparent that St Magnus Festival achieves so much of this and has created a personality all of its own.

There is a clear commitment to encouraging creativity, not just involvement, for the communities and young people here, from the astonishing animated film and score of ‘Nocturne in Sea Shark’ through to Scottish bands performing to enthusiastic crowds at the Festival Club night after night.

MagFest promises to be another notable step forward for the Festival and, with support, should become another highlight of the summer calendar. Professional performers are drawn here and bring with them adventurous programmes, which you can read about elsewhere on this site.

From first arriving, it was apparent that music-fever had gripped the islands. Each person I spoke to before or after concerts wanted to debate and discuss the music they had heard. Locals and visitors alike responded with great openness to music which they may have never heard before, from the Limbe Choir’s inspiring renditions of traditional Malawian music, to James MacMillan’s genuinely transcendent Seven Last Words from the Cross. Audience reactions were strong and heart-felt and debate was lengthy and intense.

Sell-out concerts and capacity crowds are a dream for many festivals, keen to widen their appeal. Here, this success seems to generate a mixed response in an ever-rumbling debate about how to ensure that tickets are available to popular concerts in relatively small venues.

Many promoters across the land would be glad of such a conundrum, but St Magnus Festival seems to be highly sensitive to this problem. The inspired idea to repeat concerts on the same night goes a long way to ensure that fewer people, at the least, are disappointed.

One element that St Magnus Festival enjoys which other more urban festivals can only observe with envy, is the proximity of the festival experience for musicians, volunteers and audience alike.

You are almost guaranteed to bump into a performer or composer while walking along Albert Street. Composers rarely receive this kind of visibility – so often the only visual engagement with the audiences who hear their music is a hurried and silent bow at the end of a piece, if they are there at all.

Here, the festival’s composer/conductor debate pulled in an over-capacity crowd and stimulated numerous questions to Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, James MacMillan and Martyn Brabbins. Pre-concert introductions and a visible presence around town also brought composers – both young and more established – to the foreground which is normally reserved solely for performers.

But it isn’t just during June that the festival’s commitment to new music is felt. No festival appears fully-formed on its first night. It has deep roots which draw on the creativity, inspiration and commitment of many people throughout the year, and which in turn support the flourish of activity and nourish that same soil in the months to come.

Schools projects, community rehearsals for the St Magnus Festival Chorus or for the astounding Hamnavoe Man, the on-going commitment of the volunteers, the day-to-day business of music-making throughout Orkney and the lengthy but vital process of commissioning a composer for a new work, all play their part.

So St Magnus Festival nurtures this meeting and mingling of musical worlds and has proved itself over many years through the quality and variety of its work.

The St Magnus Festival provides just one example of how we have encouraged new music in the Highlands & Islands recently, and PRS Foundation is here to support innovative live music in many ways. Over the last few months, we’ve seen an enormous number of creative projects appear from this area.

Festivals and organisations supported recently include the Sound Festival, the Seedlings Stage for newly-signed and unsigned acts at the Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival, An Tobar, Drake Music Project Scotland, and Tabula Rasa Dance Company’s commission of Malcolm Lindsay for a new touring work.

The PRS Foundation has a unique remit to support all genres of new music throughout the whole UK. We are here to stimulate the creation and live performance of new music, especially that which is adventurous and pioneering, through financial awards and ground-breaking projects.

With the generous support of the membership of the Performing Right Society, the Foundation has dedicated over £8.5m to more than 2,000 bands, composers, festivals and other new music organisations in the last 6 years.

Next time, could it be for you? Are you a band, looking for support for musicians’ fees, travel, equipment hire or marketing costs? A producer/musician working in electronic/dance music wanting to produce an inventive live one-off performance? A festival showcasing new live music? Are you a classical composer looking for a bursary to support your professional development?

We have a range of funding schemes which are designed to be simple to apply for and provide money for your good ideas. Ou website (see below) should give you all the information you need to make a good application for funding your work. There are some exceptions to what we can support, but we’re happy to talk through any ideas with you. You’ll also see examples of what we have funded in the past on the site.

We’re hoping to receive well-thought through applications for innovative music over the next few months. You’ll hear whether you’ve been successful about 2 months after these dates: Awards for Festivals and Performance Groups by 11 August, PRSF/Bliss Trust Composer Bursaries by 1 September, Live Connections by 19 October.

Take a look at the website for all the deadlines throughout 2007 for support for new music organisations, new works/commissions, promoters, festivals, performances groups and PhD scholarships.

Music of all kinds is at the heart of so much of our lives, from the ubiquitous dullness of telephone hold music to one-off extravaganzas like Live8. But how much do you share your musical passions? How can we get people talking about original music of all kinds? How can we ensure that our children can learn and be inspired by the tunes in their lives?

Tell me: what makes your musical world turn? Why does new music need supporting anyway, isn’t it all sold through hype? When did you last meet a composer or a musician whose ideas thrilled you to the core? Maybe this could be the start of a new music debate which gives musicians and those working with them a louder voice in promoting what they do best.

Tell me: what do you think?

Charlotte Ray is the PRS Foundation Manager, and can be contacted at 29-33 Berners Street, London W1T 3AB (020 7306 4233), or by e-mail at charlotte.ray@prsfoundation.co.uk