As the Music Manifesto Pathfinder programme comes to a close, Sean Corby, Pathfinder coordinator at London's Roundhouse, tells us what it's like to have Mark Ronson and Paul McCartney popping in, and what it really takes to make it in the music industry.
MM: Tell us about the Roundhouse's part in the Music Manifesto Pathfinder.
SC: We worked with five boroughs, Harrow, Islington, Camden, Harrow and Brent, and delivered bespoke projects with them. Each of those music services came to us with a list of project ideas that they thought we could help them deliver. Plus we ran the U18 Electric Proms to tie in with the Electric Proms series here.
What ideas did the different boroughs come up with?
Brent expressed an interest in developing a borough-wide percussion ensemble. They had five ensembles led by two Brent music leaders so they asked us to bring in internationally experienced percussion artists from different genres to work with each group. Each group was to familiarise themselves with a different tradition, so for example, the dhol group were linked to David Patman who's a specialist in Afro-Cuban music, and they found interesting links between those different vocabularies. That worked, and as far as I'm aware Brent's continuing with that.
What else?
We helped Haringey to launch an urban orchestra, combining music technology and live instruments so we had a music tech specialist as well as an orchestrator developing material with the young people. The whole process was quite experimental but they performed in December and had some interesting material.
How sustainable are these projects in the long term?
Haringey will be responsible for the sustainability of the percussion project. But we know Camden is interested in rolling out the model of the songwriting project we did with them, whereby we sent in a professional songwriter to work with a group of students over 14 weeks, developing material. The results contributed to their accreditation at school. They're interested in bringing back the artist who worked with them, as well as other artists from our network.
What were your highlights?
The U18 Electric Proms was a personal highlight for me because there were some fantastic music projects happening, great music making and a real buzz around the building because it was being used for the main festival upstairs. Having name artists coming down always generates a buzz. Paul McCartney popped down and had a look around and did an interview with the Roundhouse Radio project. It was fantastic.
What was the Roundhouse able to bring to the Pathfinder programme?
We've got contacts and access to an extremely broad range of professionals and we stand alone in terms of the breadth of artist we've been able to get in to do projects here, from Oscar Hernandez and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra through to Eska Mtungwazi and the likes of Mark Ronson popping in in much less formal ways. There were people from Dune records, people like Jason Yarde and IG Culture doing workshops, and a host of producers as well as live musicians and songwriters.
Why are industry connections so important?
When we talk about our links to the industry, people's immediate thoughts are that we're offering work experience - which we can, and do - or seminars with record company figures, management etc. But they overlook the fact that in terms of performance-related opportunities, if we've got Michelle Escofferey, who's an Ivor Novello-winning songwriter and singer, coming in to lead a weekly vocal project, then each of those young people participating in the project has a very real link to the music industry.
Everybody knows that if you are taken under the wing of a professional, you could get on their list of deps and spring to mind when a gig comes up, that's how it works. We go through conservatoires, we do the whole formal thing, but you do not get a gig in the LSO with just your degree from the Royal Academy, it's getting the word from your tutor who played with them, or your peers who have got a job there. That is a link to the industry, instead of offering these carrot-on-a-stick opportunities, like you might get a record deal with EMI if you attend this seminar - that's just a lottery.
What have you learnt from the Pathfinder experience?
One of things we've learnt is that we need to be less flexible when we're working with schools, they work in a less flexible framework than we would. Lead-ins for projects are sometimes very short and it just doesn't work for them. We need to look at being far more efficient in terms of our coordination logistically. And I think we need to work more closely with people like Guildhall and Trinity and Musicleader to ensure that individuals sent to do particular projects are always specialists in that area and in working with schools.
There are other issues, sometimes entrenched, to do with teachers working in the classroom and then outside artists coming in. It's a little bit like being sent to your grandma's and being spoiled, and then coming back to your mum and dad's and resenting having to do the dirty work. But all the projects where the teachers were embracing the ideas and the ways of working - those projects worked really well.