2024 at Brighter Sound

The start of 2024 brought about a big change as Debra King, our Director of 15 years, said her goodbyes and passed the baton to Kate Lowes (previously our Head of Programmes). What’s followed has been an exciting 12 months, working with some incredible people and organisations, both on our doorstep and across the world. 

This year our role as sector lead for Manchester Music City took off in a big way as we prepared for the arrival of the Worldwide Music Expo in October. But it wasn’t all about WOMEX…

Our passion for supporting young people at the beginning of their creative journey continued to be integral to our work. 

This year we worked with partners across North Manchester, Rochdale and Tameside, delivering workshops that gave young people their first taste of music-making, supporting mental health and wellbeing and sparking curiosity about creative pathways.

We delivered free courses in music business, event production, music facilitation and content creation - opening up possibilities and helping young creatives to explore ways to build healthy, sustainable careers. 

A special mention has to go to Revel, a collective of passionate young producers who’ve been meeting regularly since June. At their launch event in October they gathered opinions on the most pressing issues facing the industry, and in March 2025 will programme and produce their own music conference in response. Watch this space, and give Revel a follow on Instagram for all the latest.

Our residencies and commissions gave artists time and space to experiment in a risk-free environment, push the boundaries of their creative practice, and build their networks. 2024 highlights included:

• Here to Remember - a commission for South Asian artists in partnership with Daytimers. After the project Astrolayb said “I feel inspired to pursue my heritage as a central part of my creative work, and even my identity as a person”
• A Week With Wu-Lu - a 5-day residency in Leeds focused on cross-genre experimentation, described by one participant as “the most diverse and accessible programme I've ever been on by a long, long shot”
• A commission for is33n to produce an original soundtrack for Manchester Fashion Institute’s 2024 Graduate Showcase
• Multidisciplinary Manchester-based creative SCAPA’s Afro-Electro audio-visual project in collaboration with artists from Accra (Ghana)
• Composer, songwriter and performer Phoenix Rousiamanis’ tribute to Manchester's queer communities and ballroom culture

Alongside artist development, we supported music professionals to develop their leadership skills, including the launch of Change the Record - a new learning programme for women in the North of England supported by Sony Music’s Social Justice Fund. The programme will continue into 2025, with a second round planned for later next year. 

We’re big believers in the power of collaboration, and this year we teamed up with some brilliant people and organisations, locally and internationally.

• Working with Radio 1’s Victoria Jane, we produced more open access workshops for women and people of marginalised genders - this year featured guest artists Nxdia, Mali Hayes and Meduulla 
• We joined the Northern Music Network, a powerhouse collective of Northern-based partners coming together to support the music sector in the North of England in one united voice
• A special collaboration with Portraits of Recovery led to the creation of an EP by Harold Offeh exploring themes of intimacy, desire and consent within LGBTQ+ communities
• We teamed up with Kreşendo for ‘My City, My Voice’ - a project that connected musicians from Turkey and Greater Manchester. Together they created a new cross-city soundscape that was performed at WOW (Women of the World) Festival in May
• Also in May was a special performance of new music at Manchester Jazz Festival as part of Fallen Flags, a collaboration between five talented musicians from Manchester and Denmark
• As sector lead for Manchester Music City we worked with a whole host of local partners to welcome WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) to Manchester in October. The event brought together 2,850 professionals (including 290 performing artists) from 118 countries for 5 packed days of music and networking

We’re proud of everything we’ve accomplished this year, and are so grateful to everyone who’s been part of the journey!

As a charity, we rely on the generous support of our funders, supporters and donors. If you’d like to help us out you could:

• Make a donation
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In the new year we’ll have been at this for 25 years! We’re excited to see what that means for us, and you…