Words by Susanna Eastburn MBE This is the fifth consecutive year that we have published our data relating to the proportion of women applying to and selected for our programmes. In 2021–22 we saw a huge increase in applications overall, including almost three times as many women applying to our…

Words by Susanna Eastburn MBE It’s now the fourth year that Sound and Music has marked Black History Month as a springboard for a raft of activity, this year including paid opportunities, a new research residency, the spotlighting of Black composers and music creators and discussion events. We want to…

By Graham Davies, Chief Executive Officer, The Ivors Academy and Susanna Eastburn MBE, Chief Executive, Sound and Music On a call together in November 2020, we shared our great concerns about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on composers. Through conversations we’d both been having, we were picking up not…

Words by Susanna Eastburn MBE This is the third consecutive year that Sound and Music has released data regarding applicants to our programmes from backgrounds who have experienced racism. It is still surprisingly rare for organisations to be open about such data. Which is a shame, since an honest acknowledgement…

Words by Susanna Eastburn MBE On 25 February 2020, Sound and Music launched our Fair Access Principles. Developed and tested over many months with composers and partner organisations, their aim is to remove the many non-musical barriers that can prevent composers from fairly accessing artist development opportunities and programmes. Less…

Words by Susanna Eastburn MBE Every year since 2016, Sound and Music has marked International Women’s Day and the month of March by using it as a springboard to showcase the work and lives of ground-breaking, inspiring and significant composers past and present across our programmes, websites and in our…