Sound and Music is excited to announce the panel for New Voices 2020.
In line with our Fair Access Principles, we want to have an open and transparent selection process and this year, as in previous rounds, we have rotated the external selection panellists to refresh and renew the process.
We are thrilled to announce Cooly G, Supriya Nagarajan, Lloyd Coleman, Tadeo Sendon and Laura Jurd as panellists for New Voices 2020.
New Voices is Sound and Music’s artist development programme that supports composers at pivotal stages of their careers to explore new ideas, new sounds and new music.
The New Voices 2020 panel reflects the breadth of new sounds and new music being made in the UK today. Each panellist brings a variety of background, taste and experience into the decision-making process and they are excited to listen to your work!
What makes a compelling application though? The writing process can be daunting, especially if this is your first time. With this in mind, we’ve put together some top tips below, drawn from panel feedback last year. We hope this might help demystify the process.
- Pinpoint the developmental opportunity and make a clear case for why now is the right time to undertake an extended period of reflection
- Say what you hope to get out of the programme (e.g. what excites you about coaching and mentoring? How might your creative practice transform over 18 months?)
- Propose new and ambitious creative ideas that will challenge and stretch you (avoid reworking existing material)
- Focus more on your artistic development than professional development (e.g. if the weight of your application is towards developing your network, marketing or industry skills it might not be the right time to apply)
Find out more about the panellists below.
Cooly G
Cooly G is a vocalist, producer, and DJ—a fixture of England's esteemed Hyperdub label since 2009. That's the year she issued the 12" "Narst," featuring a battering A-side backed by "Love (Dub)," a soft collision between lovers rock reggae and contemporary R&B.
By the end of 2009, she shared a split 12" with Mala as part of Hyperdub's series of five-year anniversary releases. The following year involved another Hyperdub 12" and a second split, this time shared with Scratcha DVA on DVA Music. Her "revoice" of King Midas Sound's "Meltdown" -- retitled "Spin Me Around" -- was one of the standouts on King Midas Sound's 2011 Without You compilation. The steamy vocal she recorded for it pointed the way toward her first two albums, Playin' Me (2012) and Wait 'Til Night (2014), both of which were released on Hyperdub. Armz House, an EP of stripped-down club tracks, followed in 2015.
She has also remixed tracks by Zero 7 ("Medicine Man"), V.V. Brown ("Game Over"), Ke$ha ("Tik Tok"), Speech Debelle ("I'm with It"), and the Knife ("A Tooth for an Eye"). Her 2020 EP called Adultswim is out now.
@ItsCoolyG 
This kind of project is the kind of thing I'm excited about to hear different talents I love to hear stuff fresh and I have a great ear so me being added to this panel was the right choice this going to be fun.
Lloyd Coleman
Composer and musician Lloyd Coleman has been the Associate Music Director of Paraorchestra since 2017. Founded by conductor Charles Hazlewood, Paraorchestra has been ripping up the orchestral rulebook ever since it debuted to the world at the Closing Ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Based in Bristol, their artistic territory ranges from an orchestral reimagining of Kraftwerk in nightclubs (co-composed by Lloyd and Charlotte Harding), to ‘exploding’ a 50-piece ensemble playing across an open space, allowing audiences to create their own sonic adventures as they wander freely amongst the players. Paraorchestra is just as comfortable headlining Glastonbury’s Park Stage as they are playing at London’s Southbank Centre - with the singular aim of making world-class music with disabled and non-disabled musicians.
Lloyd studied at Chetham’s School of Music and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, before moving to London's Royal Academy of Music where he studied composition and clarinet. He is currently working on an original score for Beethoven Can Hear You - an original drama for BBC Radio 3 starring Peter Capaldi and Sophie Stone, for broadcast later this year.
Sound and Music has an excellent record in developing and promoting new talent. I've seen this first-hand, from working on their annual Summer School for young composers with David Horne to collaborating with composers Amble Skuse and Rasmus Zwicki on the Portfolio scheme for Paraorchestra. I feel privileged and excited to join the panel for New Voices 2020.
Tadeo Sendon
Tadeo Lopez-Sendon is a producer and founder of Mutant Promise, a platform supporting musicians and sound artists combining a creative learning practice with their live performance and recording work. Recent work has explored online artist-led workshops for progressive music-making from the home, working with musicians including Jessica Ekomane, Joanne Armitage and Johann Diedrick.
Formerly Co-Director of London's Music Hackspace, Tadeo led the cultural programme, residencies and artist development of the organisation, culminating in a three-year residency at Somerset House Studios. His work as an independent producer spans music, sound, technology and digital practices, working with artists including Christian Marclay, Anna Meredith, Ewa Justka and NSDOS, alongside organisations including Barbican Centre, V&A Museum, Metal, Drake Music and Furtherfield Gallery.
Artist development initiatives like New Voices are crucial in supporting composers to reflect and refocus their practice, keeping the work bold and experimental.
Supriya Nagarajan
Supriya Nagarajan, is the founder and CEO of Manasamitra, a UK-based arts organisation with global reach. She is one of the most sought-after Carnatic vocalists in the UK and has performed around the world in India, Thailand, Cambodia and cities across Europe and the UK.
Known for working in unusual, non-traditional performance spaces, she strives to engage and inspire new audiences and bring them unique cultural experiences. Supriya has collaborated with musicians from different genres and disciplines and been commissioned to create music responses to artists including Andy Goldsworthy and David Nash.
Supriya has performed and worked with a number of global artists across vocals, dance and storytelling from diverse cultures to produce dynamic artistic collaborations. These collaborations respect and challenge the ideas, forms and aesthetics of each genre whilst producing performances representative of the artistically rich, melting pot world we inhabit.
Supriya’s latest projects include The Sound of Tea - a multimedia music project set to tour the UK in Spring 2020, which explores the tradition of tea through music, performance and digital technology. New live music mixes with lighting and soundscapes, participatory tea rituals and ambisonic technology. The show draws on Supriya’s experience of the perceptual phenomenon of synaesthesia to explore the interplay between sound, sight, smell, taste and touch.
I have had a fabulous musical journey as one of the New Voices 2018 and I would like to help deliver that experience to some new artists in 2020.
Laura Jurd
Laura Jurd is a trumpet player, composer and improviser from the UK. A recipient of multiple awards and a BBC New Generation Artist from 2015-2017, Laura has developed a formidable reputation as one of the most distinctive and creative composer-performers to emerge from the UK in recent years.
Performing regularly throughout the UK and Europe, she leads the 2017 Mercury-nominated band Dinosaur who have performed at North Sea, Montreal and Molde International Jazz festivals to name a few. A highly active composer, Laura is equally at home writing for contemporary chamber groups and orchestras as she is writing for jazz ensembles and improvising musicians. Frequently creating works that present musical ingredients from outside the world of jazz music, within the realms of a jazz band, she has been commissioned by the likes of the BBC Proms and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, the BBC Concert Orchestra, Ligeti Quartet and the Northern Sinfonia. In light of this, Laura recently received a prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers as well as a 2019 Ivor Composer Award.
A passionate educator, Laura also teaches composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance; jazz trumpet at Goldsmiths University; works with the National Youth Orchestra, and the National Youth Jazz Collective.
See also
Alice Boyd, Georgia Denham, Tamsin Elliott, Cassandra Gurling, Elijah Maja, Frazer Merrick, Shirley Tetteh and Melanie Wilson.
Lisa Busby, Mella Faye, Jamie Hamilton, Sharon Gal, Emily Levy, Marv Radio, Max Syedtollan and Otto Willberg.
Vicki Bennett, Stuart Brown, Bex Burch, David Austin Grey, Alex Ho, Edmund Hunt, Johnny Hunter, Andy Ingamells, Liz Johnson, Marcus Joseph, Eunseog Lee, Daniel McBride, Eska Mtungwazi, Supriya Nagarajan and Gugak Sounds.