Adopt a Music Creator pairings for 2022 revealed

Making Music is delighted to announce the participants for Adopt a Music Creator 2022, an expanded version of the hugely popular Adopt a Composer project, which pairs leisure-time music groups with emerging music creators to create brand new music. 

Since it began in 2000, the Adopt a Composer project has inspired over 120 hugely diverse works and performances by music creators and leisure-time groups - from a piece based on the experience and sounds of a bike ride across Edinburgh, to mandolin music for archival footage from childhood, to a choral work inspired by composer Clara Schumann, to name but a few!

We have broadened the project, now known as Adopt a Music Creator, with opportunities for more music creators and music groups to take part. The project pairs Making Music members with an emerging music creator for up to a year, leading to a premiere, recording and possible radio broadcast. Alongside the usual pairing of one group and one creator, there is a Collaborate pathway, through which two groups can work together with a matched music creator. The pairings are led by an established team of mentors (Colin Riley, Fraser Trainer, Jenni Pinnock, Ailie Robertson and Lynne Plowman), with many going on to national and international success.

Although the coronavirus pandemic has thrown up huge challenges for music making, leisure-time music groups and the professionals they work with have shown time and again how resilient and creative they are, even under difficult circumstances. Pairings from previous years have continued working through the pandemic, adapting to a new world of Zoom calls and socially-distanced rehearsals, culminating in much-awaited premieres - like Bristol Brass Band's collaboration with Laura Shipsey in October 2021.

The future looks uncertain - but we do know that music will flow regardless of circumstances, and we are very excited to see what these new pairings will create together!

The pairings for Adopt a Music Creator 2022 are as follows:

• Edgar Divver and Bedfordshire Woodwind Academy Flute Ensemble
• Joshua Brown and Glasgow Orchestral Society
• Emily Peasgood and Oxted Band
• Dominic Matthews and Singing for Pleasure
• Hannah Fredsgaard-Jones and Voices of Exmoor
• Collaborate pathway: Caitlin Harrison, Aldworth Philharmonic Orchestra and Reading Youth Orchestra

Barbara Eifler, Chief Executive of Making Music, said:

'Adopt a Music Creator is a very special project, pairing professional music creators and leisure-time music groups for an experimental creative process. Yes, the result will be a piece written specifically for each group, but it’s not all about the end product: running this project under Covid-19 has highlighted how the journey is as important as the final concert, with groups and music creators endlessly inventive about how to connect, get to know each other and have fun exploring new sound worlds, even when inhabiting a mostly digital world.'

Hannah Bujic, Co-Head of Artist Development, Sound and Music, said:  

'We’re thrilled to introduce the music creators and groups as they begin their time together on this unique, challenging and deeply rewarding programme. With uncertainties and challenges to ways of working continuing this year, there is ever more need for the dedication and imagination that the participants on Adopt a Music Creator unfailingly bring to the creative process. We look forward to joining them on their collaborative journeys.'

Adopt a Music Creator is run by Making Music in partnership with Sound and Music. The UK project is funded by the PRS Foundation and the Philip and Dorothy Green Music Trust.

Find out more about Adopt a Music Creator