13 September, 2022
Another year of our Amplify artist development programme is complete, with four up-and-coming artists receiving a variety of mentorship and showcase opportunities.
The aim of our Amplify programme is as its name suggests: to reinvigorate and develop cross-cultural folk music in the UK by supporting the development of emerging music creators.
For 2021/22 the programme was supported by PRS Foundation for Music and Arts Council England.
The four artists were selected by a panel of industry professionals from an open call. The panel included Lexy Moravaridi (Contemporary Music Programmer at Southbank Centre), Guy Morley (Founder of international arts organisation No Nation), Sarah Coxson (Agent at Alan Bearman Music, former reviews editor for fRoots magazine), Thom Ashworth (Nest Collective Programme Manager), Sam Lee (Nest Collective Artistic Director).
After an incredible amount of applications, the chosen four artists were Ceitidh Mac, Paddi Benson & Grace Lemon, Marie Bashiru, and Ruby Colley.
The programme included:
- Mentoring by industry professionals. Each artist was paired with a mentor for a series of meetings.
- £500 in seed funding to develop a project through their year with us.
- Showcase opportunities at Campfire Clubs, Magpie’s Nest festivals, and other Nest Collective events
- Facilitated networking with our wide range of industry contacts including agents, labels, studios, etc, tailored for each artist.
- Creation of a live performance video, produced and promoted by the Nest Collective.
- Nature connection training as part of our three-day Nature Immersion Residency.
“I was pleased to receive opportunities to play to full audiences in different cities, growing my following organically. I also appreciated having a female mentor as so much of the music industry is male dominated. It allowed me to release and produce new music that I wouldn’t have been able to afford without the funding and connected me to people in the music industry that I’m still in contact with.” – Ceitidh Mac
“I gained more experience in how the industry works as a whole and managed to gain confidence in my practice and unique blueprint as an artist.” – Ruby Colley
“Sustainability has been a significant learning from the nature immersion retreat which has changed the way I see my personal responsibility towards being a part of the solution and encouraging/inspiring others to be the same. The nature immersion retreat was really something, it’ll have an indelible imprint on not just my practice but on the way I see the world around me.” – Marie Bashiru
We wish all four artists the very best for the future, we can’t wait to see how their careers develop from here.
