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Bursary and mentoring opportunity for early career Disabled musicians

We are excited to open applications for our Drake Music Collective: Emergents programme, part of our professional development initiative for Deaf and/or Disabled musicians.

This opportunity is open to early career Deaf and/or Disabled musicians, based in the UK. The three selected artists will have the opportunity to make new music and develop their creative skills, with the support of our creative facilitator and a bursary of £1000.

We aim to make our programme intersectionally inclusive. We particularly welcome applications from artists from the global majority, women and LGBTQIA+ artists.

If you have any questions about this role, please email Lisa Heywood on info@drakemusic.org.

The Offer

£1,000 bursary – you will tell us in your application how you will spend this money to benefit your career. For example, on equipment, mentoring, recording, paying collaborators etc.
Three online group mentoring sessions – these will bring together the three bursary recipients with our Creative Facilitator, Daisy Higman. Dates will be confirmed after selection according to availability.
One online open house session – these sessions, facilitated by Daisy Higman, will bring together our community of Disabled musicians to share ideas and creatively explore different topics. You will be able to choose from a selection of dates and topics.
Financial support for your development time – You will receive an additional bursary of £400 for your time to attend the online mentoring and open house sessions.
Showcase opportunity – an opportunity to showcase your work to an audience of industry professionals at a hybrid event in London in January 2024.

Who is eligible?

The Emergent Artist role is for early career Deaf and/or Disabled musicians based in the UK.

The selected musician will be dedicated to their own development and believe that joining Drake Music Collective’s Emergent Artist programme will help to progress their musical career.

Early career: We use the term ‘early career’ in an inclusive way, relating to experience, not age. This could include:

musicians who are changing direction or trying something new;
someone who has made music for some time, but doesn’t have a lot of experience of making music professionally;

a musician whose previous musical practice is now inaccessible to them, so they are developing a new approach or playing a different instrument.

Disabled: We use ‘Disabled’ as an umbrella term to include anyone who faces disabling barriers. For example, people with physical or sensory differences, people with invisible disabilities, d/Deaf people, Neurodivergent people and people who face disabling barriers due to mental health conditions.

Musician: We use the word ‘Musician’ to cover any artists who create original music as part of their practice. This includes all ways of making music and all genres.

Access  

We are committed to removing barriers to access for our staff, participants and anyone applying for a role at Drake Music. 

During the application process

We provide application materials in a range of formats and allow applicants to apply in a range of formats. If you experience barriers to applying, please let us know and we will be happy to make reasonable adjustments as needed.

If you are selected

We view access as an ongoing conversation. We will check what your access requirements are when you are selected, but also understand that access requirements can change over time. We have systems in place to regularly check in and see if any changes are needed to access provision.

How to apply 

To apply for this role, send your application form to info@drakemusic.org by midnight on Monday 11th September 2023. 

You can apply by: 

Filling in the application form electronically.

Creating videos or audio recordings to answer the application questions. You can then send us a link to the files with an online folder or file transfer service.
If you would like to apply in British Sign Language let us know as soon as possible, so that we can arrange for translation of your application.

If the above options are not accessible for you please let us know, and we will make reasonable adjustments as required.  

What happens next 

Application deadline: midnight on Monday 11th September

Once you have submitted your application we will reply as soon as we can, to acknowledge that we’ve received it. We appreciate that a lot of time and effort goes into submitting an application, so we will also contact you to let you know if you have been selected or not.