Annual Review 2009/10
Contents INTRODUCTIONS 03 Foreword 04 A new venture 05 Looking ahead 06 The year in brief
PROGRAMME 2010/11 21 Bill Fontana: River Sounding 22 Chris Watson: Whispering in the Leaves 23 Sound and Music online
PROGRAMME 2009/10 09 Raga Mela 10 Brian Eno’s Apollo 11 Expo Leeds 12 Summer School 15 Learning and development 16 Creating platforms 18 Supported tours and events
24 Financial report 26 Team and supporters
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Foreword It has been a fabulous first year for Sound and Music. The energy, enthusiasm and creative passion that is shared by everyone connected with it has resulted in a national body which is set to build on the heritage of Sound and Music’s founding organisations. The board and staff have worked well as a team. I would like to highlight Sound and Music’s vision: ‘a world where new music and sound transforms lives, challenges expectations and which celebrates the work of its creators.’ I think it is an inspiring vision and one which rises to the challenge of explaining the long-term ‘difference’ an organisation such as Sound and Music intends to make to society. The level of professionalism with which all board members have dispatched their duty has been very high. The result is a well-organised board that has in place the mechanisms for good governance: open conversation, a willingness to contribute to the central question of ‘How can we be better?’ and robustness of thought in Sound and Music’s closely linked and purposeful sub-committees that put the ideals of good governance into practice. It has been an honour to be the inaugural Chair of this flexible, ambitious creative group. In attending some of the performances I have a felt a real joy at the beauty and quality of the sounds I have heard. Sound and Music has fulfilled its first year promise.
We are entering a period of considerable financial change and upheaval across the UK. However, I see opportunity for Sound and Music. We are also entering a period in which people want more out of their lives: better experiences, more personal expression, and yes, more of an adventure in sound. We will remain focused on our inspiring vision and constantly seek to challenge, give joy, be creative and uphold the principles of striving for quality in all that we present. Sonita Alleyne OBE, Chair, Board of Trustees
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A new venture 2009/10 has been Sound and Music’s first complete operational year, following our foundation in October 2008. In its course we have hired an entire staff team, moved to our new home at Somerset House, launched the organisation to our many friends and family in the music business and across the arts, unveiled our new website and the Sound and Music brand, planned our 2010 Creative Launch and fulfilled a full programme of activity inherited from our founders – significant achievements for a new venture establishing its place in the world. Our 2009 season started with the extraordinary Raga Mela – a vibrant multicultural event inspired by tabla player Kuljit Bhamra that brought together new compositions for symphony orchestra, Bollywood songs, Indian musicians, school children and community groups in a mix that wowed a Festival Hall audience. The recreation with Brian Eno of his ambient album Apollo as a live performance in the Science Museum’s IMAX, alongside Al Reinert’s film of the moon landings, was another unique and mesmerically immersive occasion. And with Sound and Music supporting events as various as Rufus Wainright’s opera Prima Donna, Omar Souleyman on tour, a festival of alternative Polish music and the sound art weekend Cut & Splice, we can truly claim to have
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celebrated both the variety and quality of present-day contemporary work. Sound and Music aims to be much more than a live events presenter, and our Summer School for seventy-five 13 to 18–year–old composers, the only one of its kind in the UK, is testimony to our ambition as a catalyst for learning opportunities. With the experience of a first full year behind us, we look to build for the future and open up to audiences the rich and often unexpected experiences that new music and sound can provide. Matthew Greenall, Executive Director
Looking ahead I started as Creative Director of SAM towards the end of 2009/10, diving straight in and working with my new colleagues on putting together the programme – live events, learning and digital – for my first season. One of our aims at SAM is to create projects that engage with large numbers of people and that encourage new ways of listening to the world around us. To this end, we could not have asked for anything better to start the 2010/11 season than with Bill Fontana’s River Sounding at Somerset House and Chris Watson’s Whispering in the Leaves co-produced with Forma in the Palm House at Kew Gardens. The projects brought the sounds of the nearby Thames and the South American rainforest to audiences in remarkable sound installations. Both projects ran over an extended period allowing for an extensive learning programme, talks and lectures. The ‘in conversation’ between Chris Watson and Sir David Attenborough at the Royal Institution was an event to remember for a very long time. It is tempting to steal more highlights from what will become SAM’s 2010/11 and 2011/12 Annual Reports but watch this space for: a listening project in schools; some new developments in the presentation of contemporary music; some rich online content; a Cut & Splice
festival knee deep in radio waves; a deconstruction of Afrobeat; a music literary festival; some music in sacred spaces; some profane music in art spaces; a supercharged Summer School; composers embedded in all kinds of organisations; and of course some more major events to engage the public with the world of sound. John Kieffer, Creative Director
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THE YEAR IN BRIEF
May SAM moves to Somerset House: launch of organisation, website and brand
2009 May Raga Mela at Royal Festival Hall
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July Brian Eno’s Apollo at Science Museum
June Fertilizer Festival, Cut and Splice at Wilton’s Music Hall, Sublime Frequencies tour
September Expo Leeds
August SAM Summer School
November Cutting Edge and Cutting Edge tour October John Kieffer appointed SAM Creative Director
2010 February The Ex and Brass Unbound tour
December Chris Wood tour
April SAM Creative Launch: Bill Fontana’s River Sounding at Somerset House
March BBC Symphony Orchestra Shortlist concert
May Chris Watson’s Whispering in the Leaves opens at Kew Gardens
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PROGRAMME 2009/10
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Raga Mela Sound and Music invited audiences to immerse themselves in Indian music for a day, as the Raga Mela took over London’s Southbank Centre. Produced in collaboration with the BBC Concert Orchestra with support from BBC Radio 3 and BBC Asian Network, Raga Mela gave composers and musicians the chance to combine the ancient tradition of Indian raga with the western orchestra, creating a fresh palette of sounds. Throughout the day, free Bollywood film screenings, readings, workshops and interactive technology introduced visitors to Indian music and the raga tradition. Acclaimed composer and tabla player Kuljit Bhamra curated a major evening concert, which brought together
Sound and Music shortlisted composers, Indian instrumentalists and singers including Bollywood star Kavita Krishnamurti, the BBC Concert Orchestra and hundreds of young people from London schools and colleges. Raga Mela attracted an audience of 1500 people, including a large proportion from the British Asian community.
‘ A multi-cultural programme blending sounds of India with the spirit of the West’ BBC Radio 3
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PROGRAMME 2009/10
‘Atmospheric music... performed beautifully’ Brighton Magazine
Brian Eno’s Apollo Sound and Music celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings with a new arrangement of Brian Eno’s 1983 album Apollo by emerging composer Jun Lee, which was performed at the Science Museum, London, in July 2009. Apollo was played by amplified ensemble Icebreaker, featuring pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, in the Science Museum’s IMAX cinema, where it was accompanied by a sceening of Al Reinert’s iconic film, For All Mankind, which uses original NASA footage of the moon landings. Laptop artists Douglas Benford and Iris Garrelfs performed new work based on sampled sounds from space exploration in the gallery that houses the Apollo 10 capsule. Produced in collaboration with the Science Museum, Apollo brought together new music and the latest technology while celebrating the history of our fascination with space. Following the success of the London premiere, it was performed again at 2010’s Brighton Festival, with an expanded Icebreaker ensemble.
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‘ Apollo’s moonstruck ambience has aged gracefully, and the spare, fiercely intelligent orchestration gave it the bloom of youth’ The Guardian ★★★★★
Expo Leeds The UK’s largest annual free festival of sound art and experimental music took place in Leeds in September 2009, as Sound and Music and MAAP (Media and Arts Partnership) brought a host of live performances, installations, discussions and educational events to the city. An open call for submissions earlier in the year resulted in new works exhibited and performed across Leeds, while major new commssions included work by Christina Kubisch and former Northern Art Prize winner Paul Rooney. Expo Live featured performances by major sonic artists Lee Patterson, Chris Watson, Peter Cusack and Yannick Dauby, with a programme of immersive surround-sound work. The Expo Youth programme provided opportunities for younger artists to develop their work, pairing established artists with local young people to create new sound pieces that were exhibited in Leeds City Museum during the festival. The Expo Unconference was another chance to share ideas and information, providing an open forum for artists, researchers and members of the public to debate issues relating to sound, music and art.
‘Expo’s takeover of the city’s sonic life offered plenty to intrigue both the informed fan and the curious bystander’ Frieze 11
PROGRAMME 2009/10
‘ The summer school has shaped me as a composer’
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Summer School Sound and Music’s residential Summer School provided a unique and unforgettable week of intensive tuition, playing, composing and experimenting for the young composers of tomorrow. Held at the Purcell School of Music in Hertfordshire, the Summer School offered a range of workshops for young people aged between 13 and 18 with specialist tutors chosen from diverse areas of music. Students took courses in writing music for film, jazz and improvisation, composing for the voice, and exploring non-Western music, ending the week with public concerts showcasing their achievements. While the UK has an excellent tradition of summer camps and summer schools for young instrumentalists and singers, there has been less opportunity for under-18 creators of music to come together to learn, play and
‘ This course has changed my life! It’s opened me up to so many new things’ share ideas. The Sound and Music Summer School met this need with great success, students from all levels of experience and background were welcomed, with a bursary scheme offered for those unable to pay the course fee. The 2009 Summer School was supported by Alan and Babette Sainsbury Charitable Fund, D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, Ernest Cook Trust, Garfield Weston Foundation, Golsoncott Foundation and Seary Charitable Trust. 2010’s Summer School has built on the success of last year’s course, with 70 talented young people taking part from all over the UK.
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PROGRAMME 2009/10
‘ This has been a huge step for the choir and we hope to build on our experience. Thank you for giving us the chance to be part of this amazing scheme’ Glasgow Lyric Choir, Adopt a Composer project 14
Learning and development This has been a year of settling down, establishing a new team, amalgamating projects, evaluating old ideas and testing new ones. Our remit is very broad, and covers interpretation work around major programmes; artist development work; major initiatives; evaluation of Sound and Music’s work; digital and publications. Interpretation In partnership with promoters Arika in Scotland, Sound and Music unpacked a densely experimental programme at Arika’s Instal festival and Kill Your Timid Notion festival, for adults, students, and young people. At the start of the 2010/11 season a programme of engagement was created around Bill Fontana’s River Sounding, with creative workshops with schools, technical workshops with university students, and master classes led by Bill Fontana (left). Artist development 2009/10 saw a new artist development programme pulling together all the strands from the founding organisations, while the Shortlist continued to deliver a range of opportunities to its composers. Successes for 2009/10 include the Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group’s Composer in Residence programme, the BBC Symphony Orchestra project, a Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival performance, a project with Handel House, Raga Mela, and Adopt a Composer, in which composers create new works for amateur ensembles. Sound and Music also delivered a programme pilot on behalf of the British Council enabling composers to hear important performances of their work abroad. Digital As well as continually developing the usability and content of the website, a number of digital applications were created. Lumisonic, developed in partnership with Goldsmiths University, is a free digital application that enables those with hearing impairment to ‘see’ sound, available either as computer software or an iPhone app. The Tukesprint project created open-source interactive digital art for people with special needs, in partnership with Tuke School and Goldsmiths University. Dr Mick Grierson of Goldsmiths Creative Computing Department was successful in his £250,000 application to the AHRC for a Knowledge Transfer project which features Sound and Music as secondary partners.
‘ It will have huge impact on the work I am making next’ Participant in field recording workshop
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PROGRAMME 2009/10
‘Artistically inspired...Cut & Splice awed’ The Wire
Creating platforms Sound and Music produced and curated a series of events in London that created platforms for new music in the capital and beyond. Cut & Splice The annual festival of electronic music and sound art, co-produced by Sound and Music and BBC Radio 3, continued to establish its reputation for exploratory music and high-quality production. Influential artists such as Alvin Lucier and Aki Onda explored the atmsopheric spaces of Wilton’s Music Hall alongside emerging artists, in a programme focusing on the theme of sound in the domestic environment. The Sound Source Sound and Music took over Kings Place’s regular experimental music night with The Sound Source, resulting in some of the busiest nights of the series, and developing a student ambassador scheme that
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generated high student attendance. Plundering Žižek/ Silent Disco paid tribute to the controversial philosopher Slavoj Žižek with keyboard ensemble pianocircus, new artists, films and a ‘silent disco’, all experienced by an audience wearing headphones. The Sound Source also travelled to Northern Ireland, with a programme curated by composer Yannis Kyriakides of Dutch label Unsounds at Sonorities Festival, Belfast. Cutting Edge Tour One of the foremost platforms for new music in the UK for over a decade, Cutting Edge Tour take concerts from the London Cutting Edge series to festivals around the UK, this year heading to the Corsham Festival in Wiltshire. A programme produced by Sound and Music included CoMA London Ensemble; installations exploring the soundscapes of Vauxhall; and theatrical, genredefying performance from the Black Hair ensemble.
‘A dynamic showcase for new music’ The Guardian, Cutting Edge
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PROGRAMME 2009/10
Supported tours and events Throughout the year, Sound and Music collaborated with independent promoters, festivals, venues and organistions across the UK to support high-profile tours and one-off events, reflecting the range and diversity of live music programming in the UK. Phrased and Confused Contemporary songwriters and poets explored the relationship between poetry and music in this national tour. With spoken word, folk-influenced songs, soundscapes and MC-ing, Phrased and Confused, produced by The Hub, challenged expectations of music and poetry. Sublime Frequencies Fiercely independent US label Sublime Frequencies has unearthed folk and pop music from across the world for almost a decade. This tour, produced by Bristol-based Qu Junktions, brought these recordings to life with electrifying performances from Western Saharan ensemble Group Doueh and Syrian singer Omar Souleyman. Fertilizer Festival Subtitled ‘Good shit from Poland’, Fertilizer celebrated Polska! Year (a year-long celebration of Polish culture) with a selection of the sharpest contemporary jazz and electronic music from Poland. Produced by The Hub
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‘ A short, sharp blast of air from another planet’ The Guardian, Fertilizer
‘ A show to enlighten music fans of all persuasions’ Time Out, Prima Donna and Sound UK, Fertilizer took three acts from the festival around the UK, with film screenings and collaborations between UK and Polish musicians. Rufus Wainwright’s Prima Donna The debut opera from songwriter Rufus Wainwright was premiered at Manchester International Festival. Commissioned by the Festival and produced by Opera North, Prima Donna was a high-profile and spectacular production directed by award-winning Daniel Kramer and featuring celebrated soprano Janis Kelly. Supersonic Birmingham-based promoters Capsule hosted a bill of underground music, including doom metal, folk, horror film soundtracks, noise and jazz at the seventh Supersonic Festival, as well as art exhibitions, workshops, talks, and Capsule’s ongoing archival Home Of Metal project. The Ex and Brass Unbound Dutch post-punk experimentalists The Ex teamed up with renowned horn players Mats Gustafsson, Roy Paci, Ken Vandermark and Wolter Wierbos to tour the UK with new songs and re-interpreted old ones, in a series of gigs produced by Qu Junktions.
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PROGRAMME 2009/10
Chris Wood’s Handmade Life BBC award-winning singer, guitarist and songwriter Chris Wood wrote and recorded ten new songs specifically for this UK tour and subsequent Handmade Life album. In contrast with his solo work, Wood brought a four-piece band together, including members of The Bays and the Eliza Carthy Band, to realise his deeply personal and often political songs. Power Plant Part of the British Council Edinburgh Showcase, Power Plant turned the glasshouses of Edinburgh’s Botanic Garden into mesmerising sound environments, as Mark Anderson, Anne Bean, Jony Easterby, Kirsten Reynolds and Ulf Pedersen fused old and new technology to create immersive sound and light installations in the Victorian building. Produced by Simon Chatterton and supported by Sound and Music, Power Plant was previously a highlight of Liverpool Capital of Culture 2008, where it attracted 7000 visitors.
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‘ A bewitching garden of the imagination’ Liverpool Echo
PROGRAMME 2010/11
Bill Fontana River Sounding Sound and Music’s 2010/11 programme launched with a high-profile installation by Bill Fontana, one of the world’s leading sound artists. River Sounding, co-produced and co-commissioned by Sound and Music and Somerset House Trust, explored the building’s unique history and its connection to the River Thames. Fontana’s work at places such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate and Paris’s Arc de Triomphe invites audiences to experience iconic locations in a new way, through sound. To create River Sounding, he collected audio and video material from above and below the surface of the Thames, from Richmond to the Estuary, revealing the hidden stories and sound-worlds of the river. Images and sounds were installed in little-known parts of the building, creating an atmospheric acoustic journey. Throughout River Sounding’s six-week run, Sound and Music also presented films, spoken word, education events and talks featuring writer Iain Sinclair and sculptor Richard Wilson. A specially commissioned publication was produced to accompany the installation. River Sounding attracted 15,351 visitors, and was the subject of a BBC Radio 3 ‘Nightwaves’ programme.
‘ River Sounding is a portrait of the river as a state of mind, as well as a portrait in absentia – or in progress – of the people who look at it every day’ Frieze
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PROGRAMME 2010/11
Chris Watson Whispering in the Leaves A major sound installation by acclaimed BBC wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson greeted visitors to London’s Kew Gardens between May and September 2010. Installed in the Palm House, Whispering in the Leaves was a powerful sound work that used Watson’s extensive archive of wildlife and location recordings from Central and South America to create the atmosphere of the tropical rainforest. The sounds of frogs, cicadas, monkeys and birds formed a soundtrack of dawn and dusk choruses transmitted throughout the day via an 80-speaker set-up designed especially for the Palm House. Alongside the installation, which was co-produced with Forma, Sound and Music provided a number of educational activities including talks, guided tours, live performances and workshops. Chris Watson’s sound recording workshops for adults and young people were quickly sold out, as was a discussion event featuring Watson, Sir David Attenborough and Richard Ranft at the Royal Institution. Whispering in the Leaves introduced a new audience to the areas of field recording and sound art in one of London’s best-loved locations.
‘ The installation’s beauty is [its] simplicity: an opportunity to put our ears in nature’s darkest and most inaccessible places’ The Telegraph
‘ It is a beautiful piece of work; a true homage to a place through listening, thinking, recording and making’ www.thedomesticsoundscape.com 22
Sound and Music online Sound and Music launched phase one of its online strategy in May 2009 with a beta version of a website housing a large suite of tools and services for fans of new music and sound as well as those who make it. Since then, Sound and Music has monitored which of these tools have been successful, listened to our users’ feedback and developed a better picture of the organisation’s core aims, leading to phase two of the website to be released in autumn 2010. We believe that people come to new and experimental music from many different directions – actively seeking out new sounds, by accident, or through a slow progression from other forms and genres. The new SAM website places itself in a key position for all these journeys – as a set of signposts and a place to discover more. We want to provide a combination of rich, informative, intriguing, and entertaining content and tips on where to go next. For the professionals, we aim to provide nifty tools and opportunities both for creating new work and getting it across to the public. Alongside this new iteration of the site will be a new spin-off service from Sound and Music. The Sampler will build on the success of UK listings on the current main site and create the UK’s only free-to-access and free-to-post space for contemporary music listings.
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Financial report Overview SAM’s total income for the year was £1,598,397, of which £1,262,994 was represented by the core grant from Arts Council England. Income from productions and fundraising was £300,662 with £34,741 from investment income and other activities. The level of non Arts Council income during the year was inevitably impacted by the merger process and the fact that the new Head of Fundraising was recruited part way through the year, with the finance committee also created during the year. The organisation spent £1,812,135 on its activities, of which £343,427 related to the Organisational Development project, funded by Thrive! restricted funding, which was received in the previous accounting period. Reserves policy SAM formally adopted its reserves policy during the period under review. The policy adopted is that the organisation shall seek to maintain general fund reserves
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equal to six months operating expenditure. This relatively high level of reserves was deemed appropriate in the light of the risks that the new organisation will face in its early years, as it develops its strategic plan and its financial and operating systems. Investment policy and mandate The portfolio of investments continued to be managed by Rensberg Sheppards Investment Management Limited. At 31st March 2010 the portfolio of investments had a market value of £755,372 which, taken together with cash held for investment of £163,358, amounted to £918,730. This represents a 23% increase compared with the valuation at 31 March 2009, reflecting the improved market conditions during the year. During the year income from the portfolio was rolled up on the endowment fund, pending its allocation by the Trustees of the endowment to appropriate projects.
Summary financial information – year to 31 March 2010 INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
£ 000
Income Arts Council England Other fundraising Earned income Investment income Total income
1,263 128 173 34 1,598
Expenditure Sound and Music programme and activities: Event programme Education, learning and creative resources Membership and marketing Grants payable Total spend on programme and activities
569 384 174 204 1,331
Organisational development costs Fundraising costs Governance costs Total expenditure Total net investment in SAM in the year
343 73 65 1,1,812 (214)
Trustees’ statement The Summary Financial Information has been extracted from the charity’s Annual Report and Financial Statements which were approved by the Trustees on 22
BALANCE SHEET Assets and liabilities Fixtures and equipment Investments Debtors Bank balances Creditors Total net assets Funds Unrestricted Designated Restricted Endowments Total funds
£ 000 48 820 86 791 (237) 1,508 345 140 104 919 1,508
September 2010 and on which the charity’s auditors gave an unqualified opinion. Copies of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements have been filed with the Registrar of Companies and the Charity Commission. The Summary Financial Information may not contain sufficient information to allow for a full understanding of the results and financial affairs of the charity. For further information the full Annual Report and Financial Statements can be obtained from the charity’s registered office. Sonita Alleyne, Chair
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Team and supporters Sound and Music Board of Trustees Sonita Alleyne OBE (Chair) David Aspinall Richard Baker (resigned September 2009) Simon Emmerson Sarah Faulder (resigned September 2010) Christopher Fox (appointed June 2010) Sally Groves (Vice Chair) Debra King Guy Morley Michelle Wright Board Administrator Fiona Harvey Finance sub-committee Sonita Alleyne (Chair), David Aspinall, Debra King, Matthew Greenall, Ian Parlane, Chris Wright, Fiona Harvey Fundraising sub-committee Michelle Wright (Chair), Sonita Alleyne, Sally Groves, Matthew Greenall, Liz Beatty, Johnny Gibson, Fiona Harvey
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Nominations and Governance Committee Sarah Faulder (chair), Sonita Alleyne, Sally Groves, Matthew Greenall, Fiona Harvey Sound and Music team Matthew Greenall, Executive Director John Kieffer, Creative Director Liz Beatty, Head of Fundraising and Development Johnny Gibson, Head of Marketing and Audience Development Becca Laurence, Head of Learning and Creative Resources Ian Parlane, Finance Director Jana Phillips, Learning Producer Judith Robinson, Learning Producer (Summer School) Nicole Rochman, Learning Producer David Rogerson, Digital and New Media Manager ShoĂŤl Stadlen, Marketing and Audience Development Manager Richard Thomas, Information and Resources Coordinator Cecilia Wee, Senior Producer Richard Whitelaw, Senior Producer Jonathan Webb, Producer Mark Willetts, Company Administrator Chris Wright, Finance Manager
Sound and Music was supported in 2009/10 by Arts Council England Alan & Babette Sainsbury Charitable Fund British Council D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Ernest Cook Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Golsoncott Foundation PRS for Music Foundation Scottish Arts Council Seary Charitable Trust Sound and Music Founder Members and Innovators
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