Sound and Music Reshape for the Future
Sound and Music's summer and autumn schedules are well under way. From the Summer School and Embedded to the VSM conference / festival to touring Harold Budd and The Necks.
At the same time as delivering a full programme of activity, Sound and Music (SAM) is conducting a comprehensive review of its mission and work. This has been driven by the need to plan for a substantial reduction in the funding SAM receives and also changes in the senior leadership team which has led to the announcement of Guy Morley as interim Managing Director. Guy will oversee the review and delivery of SAM’s ongoing programme.
Guy has considerable management and programming experience from his roles at The Big Chill Festival, Brighton Festival and Dome, together with a background as an international independent producer, and was until recently a Trustee of SAM.
Working closely with both Arts Council England and independent consultants David Clarke Associates (DCA), the primary goal of the strategic review is to determine the future shape of SAM, its overall mission and its specific objectives. Firstly, we will be reviewing the operational direction of SAM - its goals in relation to its principal communities and users, which includes artists, the wider industry, audiences and funders. Secondly we will review our organisational structure and the personnel required to deliver our mission. This review is a serious undertaking at a time when SAM has a full programme. By the end of the year, however, we will be moving to a new model that delivers a renewed vision, but operates on a smaller foot-print using less resources and a smaller team.
To address our strategy, fuller consultation will be initiated with key stakeholders, as well as the existing staff and Board. This will look at specific issues such as our commitment to creating opportunities and platforms for notated composition, for example. It will also look at changing our emphasis to an organisation less reliant on Arts Council funding to promote and produce events. SAM will actively engage with the debate around the national provision of new music, particularly in the context of the recently published Holst Foundation report, and the commissioning of independent research into the future support for composers previously provided through the “Voices” scheme. SAM will also consider how it works with the broader contemporary music sector from 2012 onwards.
In the meantime SAM remains focused on delivering ongoing projects and services. These include the inaugural Vision Sound Music festival at the SouthBank Centre in September, which will reach out to new audiences from the media, film and gaming communities using ensembles as diverse as the London Philharmonic Orchestra and zeitkrazter, our annual Cut & Splice Festival in partnership with BBC Radio 3 taking place at the ICA, and some exciting initiatives in conjunction with Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival.
Our education and learning team are running the 3rd annual Summer School for young composers at the Purcell School. Our pioneering Minute of Listening project is rolling out to many more schools later this year. And our enhanced artist development programme, Embedded, with ongoing funding for 3 years through the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, continues to gather momentum with key partners including the BBCSO, BCMG, Manchester Camerata, Pervasive Media Studios and Watershed in Bristol.