It was with the greatest sadness that we learnt that one of Drake Music’s Associate Musicians and friend, Sophie Partridge, passed away on Monday 5th June.
This is heart-breaking news for all who knew Sophie and is, of course, also a tremendous loss to the arts and disability sector.
Sophie was so incredibly positive, funny and creative, but she was also a force to be reckoned with. She was political, fierce and a champion and campaigner for the rights of all Disabled people.
Sophie started to work with us at the start of our Connect and Collaborate programme back in 2012.
This led to her winning a #DM20 award to create her own 5-minute segment of ‘song’ using her voice and synthesised sound – “Song of Semersuaq”.
We were delighted when this was followed by her involvement with Sonic Vistas, a group which grew out of the Connect and Collaborate programme, including a fantastic live performance at Liberty Festival.
In 2015 Sophie joined our team as a Trainee Associate Musician working on our learning and participation programme. This was an opportunity for Sophie to develop her skills in music facilitation.
Her first project was a school inclusive ensemble programme called Tower Sounds and most recently she worked on SoundBox in partnership with Spitalfields Music and London Symphonic Orchestra.
During this time Sophie continued to attend our monthly meet ups for musicians and became part of the DM Collaborate group which performed at our #DMResonate evening at the ICA in this March.
Like so many of the people Sophie knew, she has had a great impact on all of us at Drake Music. She was a pleasure to work with and an ever-greater pleasure to know.
Carien Meijer, Chief Executive of Drake Music added:
“We are so sad to think of what the world has lost today.
We are all very deeply affected by Sophie’s death and will miss her enormously. Sophie touched so many lives – the world has lost an extraordinary person, a wonderful artist and a real champion for disability rights and equality.
Our thoughts are with Sophie’s family and friends and we send them our love during this deeply sad and difficult time.
We celebrate Sophie’s talent and spirit and remember her passion, dedication and sense of fun.”
