B:Music: Talent Development Partner 2022-23
Jazzlines Talent Development Programme
B:Music’s Jazzlines Talent Development Programme is a free-to-access initiative that supports young people to develop their skills as jazz musicians and performers. It consists of seven strands of activity, of which the PRS Foundation is kindly supporting the Rise Up initiative, Jazzlines Commission and Peer Mentors programme.
Rise Up is a project that identifies and develops talented female jazz musicians from Birmingham and the West Midlands. Each year, individuals are selected to form an ensemble that receives regular rehearsal sessions, advice and support. This might include media training, understanding contracts and band leading skills in parallel with music tuition sessions to create a portfolio of new music and arrangements to showcase at Symphony Hall, the Mostly Jazz Funk and Soul Festival and other performance opportunities.
The Jazzlines Commission involves selecting two Birmingham musicians and teaming them up with partners from elsewhere in the UK to compose new repertoire and to perform it live. It is hoped that the collaborating duos will create band new, boundary-pushing works and develop the musicians’ portfolios, while creating projects for them to tour.
The Peer Mentor Scheme is a paid teaching opportunity aimed at 18-25-year-old musicians from Birmingham, through improving their theoretical teaching knowledge and group teaching skills. Participants require no previous experience of teaching and undertake training in workshops before teaching on B:Music’s free-to-access Jazzlines Summer School and other projects, as well as receiving on-going support.