Women Make Music
Where are the women in music? – PRS for Music Foundation
announces the first 13 recipients of Women Make Music – a unique
funding opportunity raising the profile of female music creators
across the UK.
In 2010, women made up only 14% of the writer membership of PRS for Music (the
Performing Rights Society of composers, songwriters and music publishers) and, at
the 2010 BBC Proms, women wrote just 4.1% of the music performed.
In response to these statistics which prove that women are still under represented
publicly when it comes to making music, PRS for Music Foundation launched Women
Make Music – a funding opportunity aimed exclusively at women who are making
outstanding music in the UK. With this fund, PRS for Music Foundation is highlighting
the gender gap in the music industry and encouraging exciting collaborations between
organisations and creators who have not previously worked together.
Today (August 12 2011) PRS for Music Foundation announce the 13 women supported
through the first round of Women Make Music. The strong and imaginative new music
they are creating ranges from a song cycle based on Portuguese poetry, a new piece of
music for ten choirs and a composition for outdoor circus performances, to an electroacoustic composition for theatre, a month-long musical installation compromising of
weekly performances and the design of a new synthesiser. The new music funded
through Women Make Music will receive premieres in locations across the UK including
Glasgow, Jersey, London, Newcastle and Sheffield, and some will tour as far afield as
the USA, Middle East and Europe.
Launched on International Women’s Day 2011, Women Make Music saw an
overwhelming number of women apply for the first round of funding – an exciting
response and a positive sign says Chair of PRS for Music Foundation, Sally Taylor:
“We’re delighted that so many women came forward for our support and that,
through this fund, we have reached a large number of talented music creators
who have never applied to the Foundation before. The quality of the applications
we received was very high and the breadth and imagination of the 13 successful
projects proves that throughout the UK, women are making great music. By
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raising their profile, we hope that more women will develop the confidence to
make a career of writing music and that this kind of fund won’t be needed in the
future.”
Prominent female musicians and writers have supported the Foundation’s call for more
female music creators, including Imogen Heap, who said:
“I know they’re out there [female music creators]. I’ve met and heard of a few,
but would love to know more and hear more as we’re only hearing one side of
the story.”
Encouraging new and adventurous music and collaborations, the second round of
recipients of funding through Women Make Music will be announced in October.
For further details, please visit:
www.prsformusicfoundation.com/women
All artists and Sally Taylor of PRS for Music Foundation may be available for interview.
Please contact Victoria Ford, WildKat PR 020 7499 9334 victoria@wildkatpr.com
The music creators and commissioning organisations chosen for the first round of
funding from Women Make Music are:
Charlotte Bray commissioned by Oxford Lieder Festival.
Oxford Lieder’s mission to celebrate the art of song and singing offers a winning
combination with composer Charlotte Bray’s new commission of song cycle for
baritone and piano. With a compositional voice both striking and original, Charlotte’s
talents will be showcased by Roderick Williams and pianist Andrew West performing a
song cycle set to Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. The festival promises 57 musical
sessions over sixteen days, attract some 4,000 visitors.
Premiere: 27th October 2011 at Oxford Lieder Festival.
YolanDa Brown, ‘Blue Sky’.
Writer and performer YolanDa is passionate about storytelling through music, and
having already established herself as a frontrunner in saxophone performance and
winning two MOBO awards, she will develop her vocal and piano skills which she will
incorporate into a new work titled ‘Blue Sky’. This will be performed live at the Jazz
Café, Camden in December accompanied by an eight-piece band.
Premiere: 2nd December 2011 at London’s Jazz Café.
Tara Busch, ‘Artificial Intelligence: A Science Fiction Symphony’ - commissioned by
Sensoria
Sensoria and Tara Busch are due to present an innovative, inspirational new music
performance called Artificial Intelligence: A Science Fiction Symphony. Tara will
design and build her own synthesiser to use during the performance. Tara stated, “This
project is an incredible opportunity to challenge myself not only as an artist and
performer, but also as a technician. It is my hope that by creating the Science Fiction
Symphony, it will encourage other female artists to integrate and embrace technology
in their work”. The premiere performance will take place in a Sheffield art gallery
during the Sensoria music and film festival in April.
For press enquiries please contact:
Victoria Ford, WildKat PR
victoria@wildkatpr.com 020 7499 9334
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Premiere: (tbc) 22nd April 2012, Sheffield.
Helen Chadwick, Karen Wimhurst, Sinead Jones, Katherine Zeserson, ‘A Candle –
Song Cycle for Choir and Trio’ - commissioned by Big Sky.
This innovative choral project – directed by Sian Croose – is a collaboration between
four remarkable female composers, each setting works by international poets on the
theme of freedom as part of Amnesty International’s 50th anniversary. It involves ten
choirs, of which 80% of the membership is female and nine are directed by women. As
with ‘A Candle – Song Cycle for Choir and Trio’, Big Sky has a history of commissioning
new music and has previously worked with the four women involved. The choirs from
around the UK will each stage their own performance of the work between October
2011 and May 2012. The songs will then be published in order to make them available
to other choirs and it is hoped there will be both a final performance with singers
drawn from all the participating choirs, and the creation of a commissioning network
that can go on to create new choral pieces in the future.
Premiere: October 22nd 2011
Deborah Coughlin
Composer and choir director Deborah Coughlin is showcasing a female-centric fulllength performance, building on her work of forming and directing the all female altchoir Gaggle, reworking the now defunct Women’s Institute opera ‘The Brilliant & the
Dark’ and putting the finishing touches to the forthcoming Gaggle Album. Gaggle has
already made a huge impact on the tradition of choirs, gaining mass attention for
Deborah’s radical take on choral music. A two-week residency and exhibition will be
taking place in March 2012.
Premiere: (tbc) March 2012
Jessica Dannheisser, ‘The Tempest’ - commissioned by Jericho House Productions.
Using a four piece ensemble playing a mixture of period and modern instruments,
alongside a cast of eight, Dannheisser’s new work, commissioned by cutting edge
theatre group Jericho House, is a unique score for a theatre production of ‘The
Tempest’. The production will tour the Middle East before being performed as part of
Barbican BITE11 for a five-week run in London.
UK Premiere: 23rd September 2011 (previews 21st and 22nd September) at Barbican,
London.
Bela Emerson, ‘Falling Up’ – commissioned by Mimbre
‘Falling Up’ is a soundtrack created by Bela Emerson for an outdoor circus theatre
performance created by Mimbre. Composed in an exciting and highly collaborative
process, it focuses on finding common points between the experiences of a female
composer and female acrobats. It will be composed using cello with live processing
and electronics, flute, tenor, guitar, vibraphone and percussion. A recorded
soundtrack will allow for touring after the UK premieres at various locations around
the UK and Europe.
Premiere: (tbc) April 2012
Shiva Feshareki commissioned by Piano Circus.
Composer Shiva Feshareki presents her new work Jack of All Trades, a confrontational
and theatrical piece, for acoustic pianos, keyboards and kaoss pads to create a unique
electro-acoustic sound. The composition incorporates both scored and improvised
material for the players. The UK premiere will take place at Glasgow Concert Halls,
For press enquiries please contact:
Victoria Ford, WildKat PR
victoria@wildkatpr.com 020 7499 9334
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followed by the US debut in 2012.
Premiere: 11th November 2011 at Tramway Theatre, Glasgow, 8pm.
Bridget Hayden, ‘Strong Horses’
Bridget’s piece ‘Strong Horses’ is a collection of six new pieces including guitar,
vocals, and an analogue looping device. Her aim is to transform the face of live
performance by developing real time layering techniques that are responsive to a live
environment. After the launch of her first official solo album and a tour of Scandinavia
and Europe, Bridget is keen to transpose what she has developed whilst recording and
mixing into the live arena.
Premiere: (tbc) 2nd March 2012 at the Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle.
Emily Portman, ‘Hatchling’.
Solo performer Emily Portman is renowned as a singer, writer and concertina player
with an emphasis on folk music and balladry. With a passionate involvement in
historical and contemporary female narratives and their various transformations within
folk tales, the new work, entitled ‘Hatchling’ will encompass tales of transgressive
female characters who overturn established orders and escape their marginal
confinement through their wit, trickery and ‘conjuring voices’. The work is due to be
performed first at The Sage Gateshead and later at King’s Place, London.
Premiere: 28th November 2011 at The Sage Gateshead.
Serafina Steer and Sam Steer, ‘This Side of the Moon’ - commissioned by Branchage
Film Festival.
Branchage’s commission sees Harpist and songwriter Serafina Steer and animator Sam
Steer joining forces for a performance entitled ‘This Side of the Moon’, inspired by
Kenneth Anger’s ‘Rabbit’s Moon’ (1950). Serafina Steer (Stolen Recordings), will use the
new sound of a ‘psychedelic harp’ to create a live soundtrack to the performance.
Anger’s highly original film features mainly ‘doo-wop’ pop juxtaposed against surreal,
classical mime. In their bizarre and astounding new animation, the Steer sister and
brother team have re-interpreted the archetypes of Commedia Dell’Arte once more.
The premiere performance will take place in Jersey as a key headline event of the
Branchage Film Festival, taking place at the 1881 Ebenezer Church in rural Trinity, and
will be followed by a London performance later in 2011.
Premiere: 23rd September 2011 at the Branchage Film Festival.
Susan Stenger, ‘Full Circle’ - commissioned by AV Festival
This will be the first major UK solo work by Susan Stenger. ‘Full Circle’ is a six-hour
solo composition for woodwind, brass, strings and voice created for weekly live
performance within a month-long installation. It overlays Western music structures
with Chinese philosophy and lunar cycles, and marks the birth and death of John Cage
and his introduction of the I Ching for compositional strategies. The debut
performance will take place in the context of the AV Festival 2012, in a unique
outdoor circular space.
Premiere: 2nd March 2012
Jennifer Walshe commissioned by Third Ear Music
In collaboration with Third Ear Music, Jennifer Walshe will create a new piece for
PANDAMONIUM 2, a special event and catwalk type performance curated by Artwise
Curators marking the 50th anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund, the world’s leading
conservation organization. The piece will draw on one of three ‘featured themes’ for
For press enquiries please contact:
Victoria Ford, WildKat PR
victoria@wildkatpr.com 020 7499 9334
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WWF’s celebration: forest, water of snow/ice, and reference a particular aspect of
WWFs work: conservation, climate change or sustainability. Crossing boundaries
between music, visual art, film and fashion, the work will feature in PANDAMONIUM 2
as part of London Fashion Week.
Premiere: February 2012, London Fashion Week.
Notes to Editors:
BBC Proms statistics from UK Feminista: http://www.ukfeminista.org.uk/news/592-womeninarts.html
The funding awarded by PRS for Music Foundation for Women Make Music will be used to
support the costs associated with writing the new music and can also be used to support the
music’s first performance.
PRS for Music Foundation is the UK's leading funder of new music across all genres. Since 2000
the Foundation has awarded over £14 million to more than 4,000 new music projects. Widely
respected as an adventurous and proactive funding body, PRS for Music Foundation supports an
exceptional range of new music activity by awarding grants and leading partnership
programmes that support the development of new music in the UK.
www.prsformusicfoundation.com
For press enquiries please contact:
Victoria Ford, WildKat PR
victoria@wildkatpr.com 020 7499 9334