We can announce the recipients of Round Three of our Essentials Fund — a programme offering vital, flexible financial support to UK-based creators working with sound and music.
Following an exceptionally competitive Round Three, with over 400 applications received, we are proud to support a cohort of creators whose practices span experimental music, songwriting, electronic production, interdisciplinary performance and more. Together, these recipients exemplify the innovation, diversity and ambition shaping music-making across the UK today.
Congratulations to our Round Three Essentials Fund recipients:
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Adam Weikert
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Katarina Ranković
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Coco Mbassi
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Tyger Blue
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Laura Dia
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İlayda Deniz Oğuz
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Richard James
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Jacksonville
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Arlo Martin
Recipients of Round Three receive essential funding to support the next stage of their creative journeys. This includes purchasing specialist equipment, recording and releasing new work, developing interdisciplinary projects, accessing mentoring or training, and covering other critical costs that sustain composing and creative practice.
Randomisation
For this round, we piloted a new randomisation-based selection approach. This change is part of our ongoing commitment to fairness, transparency and sustainability in how we distribute funding.
The pilot aims to:
- Reduce unconscious bias in decision-making
- Support more composers more equitably
- Simplify the application process
- Enable us to scale support without increasing administrative burden
We are committed to learning and improving how we support composers, and this pilot will help shape future rounds. We warmly welcome feedback from applicants and the wider music community.
Learn more about our randomisation approach
Share your thoughts on randomisation
About the Essentials Fund
The Essentials Fund is a cornerstone of Sound and Music’s commitment to empowering artists working with new music and sound. Launched in 2024, the fund responds to the growing need for flexible, small-scale financial support across the music sector, and has awarded over £250,000 in grants over the past five years.
The Essentials Fund is made possible through the generous support of Arts Council England and the Francis Chagrin Award.
For updates on future rounds of the Essentials Fund, subscribe to our newsletter and follow Sound and Music on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
About Sound and Music
Sound and Music is the UK’s charity for new music and sound. Our mission is to be the base camp for anyone in the UK who wants to make, experience or support new music and sound to shape the modern world.
We deliver artist-centred development programmes and essential funding to young, emerging and established artists breaking new ground across music-making in the UK. We lead research, campaigns, networks, archives and collections to further originality, discovery and equity within music.
For over 15 years Sound and Music has worked with thousands of music creators and hundreds of organisations to boost musical creativity, careers, cultures and communities; progressing inclusion and representation within new music in the UK.
Learn more about the Essentials Fund
See previous Essentials Fund awardees
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