Our Musicians in Residence programme, in partnership with PRS Foundation, transports musicians to locations around the world to immerse themselves in different cultures and a different musical landscape. Each musician spends around several weeks working with local musicians, performing, writing and soaking up fresh inspiration.
Musicians in Residence began in 2012 when Imogen Heap, Matthew Bourne, Jamie Woon and Gareth Bonello headed to different parts of China. The second residences in 2014 included Anna Meredith, Arun Ghosh, Oliver Coates, Sam Genders and Sid Peacock. The third, in 2015, also in China, saw an all-female lineup of Bella Hardy, Kerry Andrew and Mira Calix.
In 2017, the residencies expanded from China – where Quinta, David Lyttle and Emmy The Great headed – to Brazil, where Phantom Chips (Tara Pattenden), Lady Vendredi (Nwando Ebizie) and Nathaniel Mann relocated. Also in 2017, the incredible drummer Sarathy Korwar performed and exchanged his ideas with musicians and audiences in UAE.
In 2018 and 2019, three new musicians took up the story in Brazil – Awate, Redinho (Tom Calvert) and Emma-Jean Thackray – while three more took up home in China, the fabulous Jasmin Kent Rodgman, FEMME and Love Ssega.
Covid-19 prevented us from continuing residencies in the early 2020s but the residencies returned in a digital format from 2021 to 2022, as the biggest group yet, made up of musicians from the UK and beyond, built new connections in Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, South Africa and the UK as Luke Styles, Pedro Carneiro Silva, SHHE, Ahmed Saleh, TĀLĀ, Rani Jambak, GLOR1A and Clement Carr all took part.
Find out more about each residency and the music and connections made along the way.
