Maija Handover: New Music Plus
Commissioned by:
The Big Chill Festival
Find out more by visiting:
Maija Handover is co-Director of sounduk, an organisation committed to promoting the very best new music through live events, PR, consultancy and artist representation.
As a new music producer, Maija has a special interest in working collaboratively to deliver pioneering new work outside, and inside, of the concert hall, working with artists and organisations across musical genre and beyond. Maija produced sounduk’s first site specific project, Earth Machine Music, which commissioned Finnish artist Kimmo Pohjonen to compose new music inspired by, and performed in, four UK farms. The events featured local farmers, agricultural machinery and even animals plus a special locally brewed Earth Machine Music beer, food rituals, farm trails and Farmers Weekly as media partner. A special version of the project came to Shoreditch as a highlight of the Concrete & Glass festival, as well as inspiring an Australian version with Kimmo working with Outback farmers for the Queensland Music Festival 2009.
Current productions include Canal Music, a new music project on the Grand Union Canal with Leafcutter John and Lisa Knapp (Sep 09), and Fertilizer Poland, a festival of contemporary Polish music, film and more taking place across the East End and on tour, which sounduk co-produces with the hub (May 09).
Passionate about providing a platform in the UK for artists at the forefront of their craft, sounduk represents a small but exciting selection of international musicians who are consistently creative and original. Maija is the UK agent for Norwegian percussionist/composer Terje Isungset, NYC based percussionist/composer Lukas Ligeti and Finnish accordionist / composer Kimmo Pohjonen.
Maija also continues to work as a leading publicist and communications consultant across a diverse range of contemporary music clients who produce forward-thinking work of the highest quality.
Whether as a producer, agent or publicist, Maija brings great passion, commitment and pride to playing an integral role in helping exceptional, innovative new work reach a wider public.
“The whole scheme offers an irresistibly exciting opportunity to learn as much as possible. I hope the knowledge and experiences gained can be used to inform my future practice and that of sounduk. Being able to meet and collaborate with such a diverse group of people working across contemporary culture is a fantastic opportunity. I hope this will give me a greater insight into the challenges and opportunities involved in producing work across different art forms and scale. I hope the scheme will lead to lasting and fruitful new partnerships, but most of all develop my ability to produce inspiring creative experiences for artists and audiences, both inside and outside of the concert hall.”