After a successful first year, we are delighted to announce that the second cohort of our Future Leaders programme is well underway!
Funded by Youth Music, the project aims to support and promote inclusive, accessible practice in music-making. Working with 7 young Disabled musicians aged 18-25, we wish to improve representation in the workforce by:
- Developing progression routes, new skills, and knowledge.
- Providing practical experiences.
- Exploring the variety of roles within the music sector, such as music leaders, project managers, facilitators and educators.
Godfirst (G1)
“My name is Godfirst, and I am 24 years old. Music has always been at the heart of my life, shaping not only my creativity but also the way I have overcome challenges. Living with a disability, I have faced obstacles that could have held me back, but music has been a powerful tool that has helped me to grow, express myself, and find strength. It has given me the confidence to push beyond limits and to connect with others in a meaningful way.
Throughout my journey, I have explored music through performance, drumming in both school and church, and by developing my own creative ideas. Each step has deepened my passion and confirmed that music is not just something I do – it is a part of who I am.”
Example of Godfirst’s work
Connect with Godfirst
Lilian Buckthought
Lilian is a trans DJ, promoter, writer, and artist & label manager working within electronic, experimental, and dance music. The founder for CLIMAXED – a music management company, providing business & creative support to artists, labels, and events.
Kicking off in 2021, as a face for Lilian’s club nights and growing roster, CLIMAXED in 2026 is a modern music company supporting the left of field and artists across the electronic sphere. Under CLIMAXED, Lilian curates ‘DOLLSTEP’, an event centering trans electronic music, femme voices, low-frequency sounds, and heavy bass.
From working at Black Acre Records, numerous music festivals and charity-funded projects, Lilian is now looking forward to producing music, plotting the expansion of DOLLSTEP, and where she can bust a move next.
Examples of Lilian’s work
Connect with Lilian
Website
Instagram (personal)
Instagram (CLIMAXED)
Mina (Mina’s Altar)
Mina (25) is a folk musician from Hull, Yorkshire. Having played the local folk circuit in Hull, Beverley and Scarborough, she is now recording her debut EP with The Warren under the stage name Mina’s Altar. Her sound is folky and haunting, with layered harmonies, influenced by artists such as Florence and the Machine, Hozier, and Alice Phoebe Lou. She weaves her mental health experiences with her unique sound.
Through the Drake Music Future Leaders Project, she hopes to gain skills in leading songwriting courses for young people and people under Mental Health services, as part of the Experts by Experience scheme. The Experts by Experience Scheme allows ex-service users to improve Mental Health services by offering their feedback and advice, or going into spaces as a practitioner to bring new services to wards. As a poet, artist and musician, she hopes to offer combined practices to enable others to express themselves as part of their recovery.
Connect with Mina
Examples of Mina’s work
Tom Culling
Tom is a community musician, composer, and performer whose work centers around technology, improvisation, and inclusive music-making. Workshop leading and developing accessible projects that introduce participants with varied access needs to composition, improvisation, and group devising is a focal point of Tom’s practice. He has worked with organisations such as Soundlab, BCMG, and Orchestras For All, and has led projects ranging from SEND-focused composition workshops to classroom and one-to-one tuition.
Alongside this, Tom’s performance practice explores live electronics, spectralist compositional techniques, and a focus on texture and sound design, often blending dance, ambient, and contemporary classical styles. His solo sets and collaborative project Stresshead Fringe Science emphasise improvisation, rhythm, and texture. Recent appearances include Full of Noises, Flatpack Film Festival, Digbeth First Fridays, and Centrala.
Examples of Tom’s work
Stresshead Fringe Science:
Connect with Tom
Amélie Donovan
Amélie is a classical flautist with a keen interest in folk, jazz, and new experimental music. She enjoys the process of collaborating to create, perform, and record new music, and has been commissioned to play a diverse range of repertoire for contemporary composers. Amélie has performed with a variety of orchestras and ensembles, including Dartington Sinfonietta, Divertimento Ensemble, Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Wales, National Youth Folk Ensemble, and Ignite Symphony Orchestra. Having completed her undergraduate studies at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Amélie is now undertaking a master’s degree in music performance at the Royal Academy of Music.
Alongside her enthusiasm for performance, Amélie is passionate about widening access to music. As a member of the National Youth Arts Wales ‘Changemakers’ team, she has been actively involved in shaping activities, operations, and policies within the Welsh arts sector, helping to improve accessibility and sustainability. Amélie sees music as a language through which it is possible to make meaningful connections with diverse audiences and communities. She has enjoyed bringing musical performances and workshops to a variety of venues and settings, including festivals, Special Educational Needs schools, residential care homes, concert halls, and churches around Europe.
Examples of Amélie’s work
Connect with Amélie
Ella Pearson (Pea)
Pea (Ella Pearson) is a genre-defying creative whose work spans the wide expanse of the music industry. Having recently graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama with a Bachelors and Masters degree in Music Performance on oboe and cor anglais, they have refused to be bound by the traditions of classical music by producing innovative and inspiring performances using a variety of creative outlets.
With a passion for experimentation and pushing the boundaries of their instrument, Pea has studied contemporary improvisation in Vilnius, Lithuania, during their ContemPlay Festival, during which they performed new improvisations with musicians from across Europe. Pea also regularly performs improvisations in a duo with electronic artist and composer Natalie Roe, creating electronically manipulated music and soundscapes that elevate the classical oboe and cor anglais to groundbreaking new heights.
A love for live music has driven much of Pea’s work, and they have recently branched out into fronting the punk band Jericho, as well as collaborating with glam-rock band Telgate to add cowboy-esque cor anglais to a new track debuted at Rough Trade Bristol.
Pea has been a member of the National Open Youth Orchestra since 2023, resulting in a dedication to inclusive and accessible music-making. As an outspoken music and mental health advocate, they have had writing published by Music Teacher Magazine on the links between Borderline Personality Disorder and music and has spoken on music and wellbeing as a panelist for Beacons SUMMIT music conference and RWCMD Talking Heads Festival. Pea is thrilled to be working with Drake Music to amplify their advocacy for disability inclusion within the music industry.
Examples of Pea’s work
Connect with Pea
Florence Limb
Florence (she/they) is a lesbian and Disabled musician, theatre maker, and creative whose work spans across music, theatre, and community arts. She graduated from Falmouth University with a First-Class Honours degree in Popular Music, followed by a Master’s degree in the same discipline, and has since built a multidisciplinary practice that celebrates queer identity,
inclusivity, and storytelling through music and performance.
This year has marked an exciting step forward in Florence’s career, with two theatre shows embarking on national tours: ‘The Witching Hour’ and ‘CLOSETED’, the launch of a queer-inclusive magazine platforming underrepresented voices, and the continued growth of her compositional practice for theatre and musical theatre.
Alongside her creative work, Florence is deeply committed to supporting and nurturing the next generation of artists. She works as a facilitator and is about to begin assistant facilitating a musical theatre programme, as well as directing Plymouth University’s upcoming production of ‘We Will Rock You’ this
September.
She also works as an assistant facilitator with The Beat
Academy in Bodmin, where she helps provide music tuition and guidance for young people.
Florence’s work is driven by a belief in the power of creativity to build community, amplify marginalised voices, and create spaces of joy and expression.
