Our work

We want to positively impact people’s lives by ensuring that more composers can sustain a career and more young people can progress their interest in creating their own music.

Over the coming period our priorities will be to remove barriers to access, to nurture creativity, and to develop a more sustainable ecology for new music. The new CEO will shape how we approach this task, building on all that has already been achieved through our work.

Our artist development programme supports a diverse range of composers from across the UK to sustain their careers. We offer a combination of in-depth and lighter touch programmes with a mix of support that includes creating and producing new work, skills development, peer networking, coaching, mentoring, awards, and commissions. We take an artist-first approach — we listen to the community of composers working today to make sure we provide the support they truly need to thrive, to enable them to develop sustainable careers, and to ensure that they are at the heart of cultural life.

We create opportunities for young composers and music creators to compose and create their own music, and to take their interest further through a range of progression routes and skills development. Our popular Summer School, an annual week-long residential for 75 young composers and creative musicians aged 14 to 18, is complemented by regional partnership projects which enable many more young people to access the support and guidance of professional composers and musicians in creating their own music. We offer training and development to music educators and composers so they can empower children and young people to compose and create their own music, and we advocate that composing and creating music should be at the heart of every child’s music education.

We seek to build and grow audiences, and to campaign for a better future for new music, through highlighting diverse voices, unique curated digital content including our hugely successful Minute of Listening platform for children, data-driven campaigning such as the Fair Access Principles and a highly skilled and digital approach to audience engagement through a range of channels.