EXTRAORDINARY MUSICAL ENCOUNTERS FOR ALL
Our vision is that people across the UK can access, experience and participate in high quality new music wherever they live.
Our mission is to bring artists and people together across the UK to experience extraordinary events that enrich lives.
We support artists at all stages of their career to create innovative new work. We increase access to this work through engagement activity and partnerships.
We produce musical encounters in all kinds of places, from shows in major concert halls to intimate performances on beaches and village greens, from sound installations in museums and forests to digital works online.
The music we present embraces all musical genres, from jazz to sound art, electronic to contemporary classical and all points in between.
ARTIST DEVELOPMENT
We support artists to develop and realise bold new creative ideas for diverse audiences and settings.
PARTICIPATION
Through workshops and participation opportunities, we aim to ignite curiosity, inspire and release people's creativity through music.
We want to make it easier for more people to experience and learn about brilliant new music and the people that create it. We do this through providing a range of ways for people to get involved, not only through live and online events but talks, workshops and training.
We also create projects that call on local communities to help artists create new music in response to where they live.
Across everything we do we strive to enable artists and audiences to take creative risks – and enjoy them.
Founded in 2001, we have supported and developed over 300 of the world’s most creative artists and composers working across contemporary music.
We have commissioned and presented over 90 acclaimed new projects to hundreds of thousands of audiences across the length and breadth of the country.
From village greens to major concert halls, farms to national museums, beaches to national heritage sites, we have worked with over 100 of the country’s venues.
In 2022-23 we continued to produce extraordinary musical encounters, bringing artists and audiences together. We worked with 42 music creators on 10 projects, with 7 music tours, 6 new commissions and 2 self-guided audio trails.
Read our 2022-23 Impact Report
“Always a pleasure to have any involvement with Sound UK, their imagination, inspiration, their long-term experience and outstanding professionalism. Thank you.” - Artist, Reading Audio Trails.
“So uplifted, one of the best concerts ever, I am not exaggerating! Thank you all so much.” - Audience member, Arun Ghosh's The Canticle of the Sun.
In 2021-22 Sound UK celebrated 20 years of creating extraordinary musical encounters. Throughout this landmark year, we continued to create opportunities for music creators and the public to come together, with 551 artists and performers, and over 20,000 live and digital audiences, experiencing a huge range of new music.
Read our 2021-22 Impact Report
"A phenomenal experience I will never forget." Audience member at Arctic Ice Music, produced by Sound UK.
"Sound UK are my go to when it comes to trusted innovative producers…without the collaborative support of Sound UK none of this would have been achievable." Musician and composer Keeley Forsyth
Sound UK is run by Co-Directors Polly Eldridge and Maija Handover, supported by Assistant Producer & Marketing Manager Chloe Arnett, and Communications Director Jamie Harber.
We work alongside a crack team of freelancers and consultants across production, design, participation and fundraising. These include Tim Hand (production), John Gilsenan at IWant (design), Annette Becker (illustration) plus many more.
ARTISTS WE WORK WITH
We have longstanding relationships with some incredible artists from Scandinavia including Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and ice musician Terje Isungset plus Finnish accordionist / adventurer Kimmo Pohjonen. Closer to home we have ongoing relationships with Iain Ballamy, June Tabor and Huw Warren as Quercus.
View our artist page to explore the current artists and projects we're booking for.
For new commissions we’ve been lucky enough to work with quite simply some of the most creative musicians and artists in the world such as; Will Gregory, Lisa Knapp, Adrian Utley, The Unthanks, Leafcutter John, Kira Kira, Gwyneth Herbert, Carleen Anderson, Nikki Yeoh and Pee Wee Ellis.
We constantly have our ears to the ground listening out for great music and project ideas. If you’re an artist who has a high quality new music project you feel has the ability to engage with people, do get in touch with us here.
ORGANISATIONS WE WORK WITH
We work in close partnership with a wide range of partners to create high impact and memorable events. These range from National Trust to Horniman Museum, rural touring schemes to Opera North, Barbican to Landmark Trust and many more.
We also offer a range of client services across producing and programming, marketing, tour management and booking. Current and recent clients include Turner Sims (University of Southampton), Forestry England, Hack-Poets Guild, Reading Borough Council, Historic England and Adrian Utley (Portishead). Read about our client services here.
If you’re interested in collaborating with us on a project to engage audiences please get in touch here.
Commissioning and touring new music needs support to bring it to as many people as possible.
We are extremely grateful for the support we’ve received from funders, including trusts, foundations and international agencies:
Arts Council England
Ernest Cook Trust
Hinrichsen Foundation
Paul Hamlyn Foundation
PRS Foundation
John Ellerman Foundation
and more.
If you are interested in supporting the work we do at Sound UK please do get in touch here.
If you are an individual, please find out more about supporting us here.
Sound UK is a registered charity with a board of brilliant trustees:
– Julia Payne (chair)
– Clare Jack
– Sarah Jones
– Nadav Moredechi
– Lucy Wood
– Jason Yarde
Sound UK Arts is a registered charity No.1157305
Company Number: 7300739
Here’s how we use your data
We are Sound UK Arts, a registered charity (no 1157305) and Arts Council England National Portfolio organisation.
We understand that your personal information and privacy is important to you. We protect your personal information and adhere to all current data protection act legislation with respect to protecting privacy. We do not give out, sell or trade our mailing list data with external organisations. We comply with the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) 2018.
Sound UK Arts collects the following data:
Mailing list – Name and email address
If you have given your consent and signed up to our monthly e-news mailing list via our website or paper mailing list at one of our events we give you the option to unsubscribe in every email that we send you, or you can alternatively use the contact details at the end of this policy to get in touch with us. Your data is always held securely. Occasionally we analyse our monthly e-news data for market research purposes to make sure our content is relevant and engaging for you.
Website Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are automatically placed onto your device by some websites that you visit. They are widely used to allow a website to function as well as to provide website operators with information on how the site is being used. Our cookies do not store information which is capable of directly identifying you (such as your name or address). You can choose whether to accept these cookies by amending or setting the controls on your browser to reflect your cookie preferences.
Google Analytics, Google AdWords and Google Signals
When someone visits www.sounduk.net, we use Google Analytics to collect statistical data and details of visitor patterns which tell us which parts of our website visitors use most often. None of this information uses, or requires the use, of personal information and is processed in a way that does not identify individuals. We do not make any attempts to find out the identities of individuals visiting our website.
We also use Google AdWords conversion tracking and Google Signals. Google AdWords uses cookies in order to measure the performance of advertisements (Google AdWord campaigns). Google Signals compiles for us multi-platform data reports on Google users that have enabled personalised advertising in their Google accounts. This Google information may include end user location, search history, YouTube history and data from sites that partner with Google, and is used to provide aggregated and anonymised insights into our users' cross device behaviours. These data models and reports are based on random samples and are pseudonymised to ensure anonymity. You can access and delete this information at any time by visiting My Activity in your Google account.
Third party links
You might find links to third parties on our Website. These websites should have their own privacy policies, which you should check. In cases when we use external websites provided by other organisations such as Twitter, YouTube or Facebook, then we would ask you to consult their privacy policies.
Audience Agency and Culture Counts
We work with the Audience Agency, Culture Counts and Arts Council England to collect anonymous audience feedback data from our events as part of a national cultural reporting process. The data is collected via email, tablets at events or paper surveys and helps us better understand our audiences.
Your rights to your personal information
You have a right to request a copy of the personal information that we hold about you and to have any inaccuracies in this data corrected. Please use the contact details at the end of this policy if you would like to exercise this right.
Contact details and further information
Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or the information we hold about you: chloe@sounduk.net