the hub and the PRS for Music Foundation have teamed up to present ‘Co-producing new work for new audiences’, an event that will explore the artistic, organisational and audience development opportunities of co-producing music-led events across art form and between organizations of different scale.

Taking place at London’s City Hall on 10 June, the programme will include discussion panels, breakout sessions and presentations about New Music Plus… Panellists will include Stuart Brown (BFI Southbank), Laura Ducceschi (De La Warr Pavilion), Jude Kelly (South Bank Centre), John Kieffer (Sound and Music), Penny King (Arts Council England) and David Metcalfe (Forma). Watch this space for full programme details, or email us to make sure of your place at the event.

The event will draw from our learning from the pilot New Music Plus… producer development programme which ran in London during 2009. Click here to find out more about New Music Plus…

Over the summer, the hub will be working with EFDSS to explore how best the organisation can support the development of new work and emerging talent in the folk music sector.

EFDSS aims to “nourish artistic innovation and excellence and develop the reach of English folk and new acoustic music in the UK and its profile internationally”, and we’ll be looking in particular at how it can support artists to build and connect with new live audiences. Get in touch if you’d like to find out more, or tell us what you think.

In the meantime, check out Folk Rising, a three-part concert series sampling the freshest, undiscovered and at times radical UK folk music, produced by EFDSS and the most excellent The Magpie’s Nest. The future sound of folk…today.

Arts Council England and British Council have published Supporting UK Musicians Abroad, a summary of research carried out by the hub last year, which provided recommendations for how the two organisations could work together more effectively to maximise the impact and benefit of their support for musicians and music organisations wishing to develop their work internationally.

In arriving at our recommendations, we mapped the support currently available to those musicians and other music professionals in England working, or wishing to work, internationally, and identified where the needs of such individuals and organisations are currently unmet.

the hub’s findings have been welcomed by both organisations, and they have already informed the new Memorandum of Understanding between the Arts Council and British Council and the Arts Council’s consultation document Achieving great art for everyone. On a practical level, the two commissioning organisations have also begun work in response to some of our recommendations, for example the suggestion of a more ‘joined up’ approach to strategic planning, showcasing in the UK and overseas, online intelligence and clearer communication of our international priorities. Meanwhile, recommendations relating to touring, internal professional development, evaluation and lobbying and advocacy will inform future developments.

You can find a copy of the executive summary, our mapping and gapping analysis of the current infrastructure in England and contextual information about the commissioning partners, along with their joint response to our research, here.

Following initial consultation carried out by the hub last year, the Mayor of London has launched Making Music Matter, his music education strategy for London 2010-12. Published earlier this month, just over a year after the first ever Mayor’s Music Education Summit which the hub also produced and which kicked off the consultation process, the resulting programme includes: a new £100K fund for music education in the capital, to seed fund partnerships between local authority music services and orchestras and ensembles in the city; an audit of music education provision across London boroughs; an annual Rhythm of London event; a Rhythm of London website, signposting musical opportunities for young people, teachers and the general public; events and publications to support teacher development; advocacy to funders and government, and regular consultation with young people, teachers, parents and music education providers. You can download the full document here.

We’re finally coming down from our Fertilizer festival buzz, but luckily we’ve had lots of love from audiences about this year’s good s**t from Poland to keep us pepped up: “It was bloody brilliant!” “Killer show!” “I love Polish jazz”.
Want to re-live the atmosphere? Check out our podcast with the touring trio of Sing Sing Penelope, Jacaszek and Contemporary Noise Sextet and our short video interview with the amazing Pink Freud.

A big thank you to all of you who came to see us on tour or in London – you made our artists very happy. A massive thanks to all the artists too, it was great to have you at Fertilizer! And thanks too to our funders: Arts Council England, Sound and Music, and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM), not just for their money but for their all-round support in helping us deliver the festival.

As far as the future is concerned, we’re already plotting and planning in true Fertilizer style, keeping our ears to the ground for the latest underground sounds. We’ll keep you updated with our plans, but in the meantime if you have any suggestions for future Fertilizer outings, please do get in touch. Let us know if there’s good s**t anywhere in particular you’d like us to check out and bring back to UK. This is not a competition; there are no prizes to be won – but you might end up seeing your dream festival come to life and how cool would that be?!

After working through some 75 proposals from poets around the country, we’re really pleased to announce that we’ve commissioned Joshua Idehen, Sifundo & Jamal Msebele, Hannah Silva & Alexis Kirke and Sound of Rum to create new material for the Phrased & Confused stage at Summer Sundae Weekender (14-16 August 2009).   Find out more about them and their work here

Fertilizer 2009… Good S**t From Poland is nearly upon us!! And here at the Fertilizer HQ we’re busy putting together the final touches, ready to hit you with a plethora of underground sounds and leftfield new music. The venues are booked, the artists have their flight tickets and we’re ready to go with this year’s festival in London’s East End.

The mash up of sounds and influences has to be seen (and heard) to be believed this year as we bring you everything from the finest Polish hip hop, to electronica, post rock psychedelia and even an orchestra of tiny instruments. To find out more about the acts showcased this year check out their biogs on our website. And for the first time we’ll also be spreading good s**t across the UK as the Fertilizer tour bus heads for Norwich, Bristol, Oxford, Liverpool and Gateshead for a series of very special shows featuring Sing Sing Penelope, Jacaszek and Contemporary Noise Sextet.

Plus thanks to Sound and Music this year Fertilizer has been able to commission a unique British Polish Jazz collaboration between Pete Wareham of Acoustic Ladyland and Polar Bear fame and Poland’s prog-jazzers Pink Freud. Pete is at the heart of the new breed of improvisers who effortlessly blends rock, electronica and beats with Jazz which makes him the perfect partner for Pink Freud who epitomise Gdansk’s tradition of improvisatory drawing on a truly eclectic range of influences, including jazz, rock, folk, jungle and drum’n’bass, making them one of the most interesting and spontaneous jazz groups we’ve come across in recent years.

Pete has been out in Poland to practise and perform with Pink Freud and you can follow his time over there through his regular updates on Twitter. The guys will be playing 2 exclusive gigs during the festival the first at London’s Cargo on Wednesday the 13th of May and then at Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds the next night, Thursday the 14th.

And this year it’s easier than ever to keep up with everything Fertilizer. Why not become our friend and receive exclusive updates on the festival, read interviews with the acts and be in with a chance to win some goodies? You can also join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

I’ll leave you with our first in our new series of the Fertilizer Phrasebook, which aims to equip you with all the phrases you’ll need to have a good time at this year’s Festival:

No. 1 - Zatańczymy? – which means ‘Shall we dance?’

Following the success of the first ever Mayor’s Music Education Summit, which was produced by the hub in January 2009, the GLA has recently announced a new Trainee Music Education Project Officer post. Full details of the post can be found at http://www.london.gov.uk/gla/jobs/20091505/TF04.jsp

Please note: The vacancy is part of the Industrial Placement scheme for University undergraduates who are seeking to spend one year in ‘industry’ as part of their qualification. Closing date for receipt of completed applications is noon 15th May 2009.

Phrased and Confused heads off on tour this May, taking an irresistible mix of song-writing genius and spoken word to venues in Bracknell, London, Norwich, Derby, Stockton and Exeter.

We’ve invited some of our favourite songwriters and poets to climb aboard the tour bus, get lyrical and explore the spaces between poetry and music. Expect a night of blissed-out pop, dark satire, exuberant wordplay and new collaborations from four very different artists working together for the first time.

Championed by Steve Lamacq, and described by the Guardian as ‘Canada’s best kept secret…the most unjustly overlooked band in Canada’, music collective Woodpigeon are rapidly gaining a cult following for their laid back and lush folk pop.Next up, the brilliant, darkly funny satirist, Murray Lachlan Young who is a regular at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, penned the cult hit ‘simply everyone is taking cocaine’, supported the Pet Shop Boys and is a resident rhymer with the BBC’s Saturday Live.

With nods to Patti Smith, John Cooper Clarke and Tom Waits poet Aofie Mannix and accordianist Janie Armour mix live and recorded sounds to create beautifully haunting soundscapes. We first worked with Aoife and Janie when they wrote new work for our Phrased and Confused stage at Summer Sundae festival last August.
We’re also pleased to be unleashing on a national audience for the first time Dead Poets, a cheeky fast-paced and laugh-out-loud mash up of ‘proper’ poetry and sharp-eyed MCing, courtesy of Mr Mark Grist and MC Mixy.

For more information and the full tour dates visit www.phrasedandconfused.co.uk and join our Facebook group.