Tom Sweet

Tom Sweet has a long track record in the music industry, spanning a diverse range of roles in festival and venue programming, project production, fund raising and international touring. Working as a programmer for The Big Chill festival in the UK and India, he also established a dynamic year-round music programme for The Big Chill Group’s London venues. He held contemporary music programming positions at the Barbican Centre in London and Warwick Arts Centre in the West Midlands, during which he developed vibrant programmes featuring UK and international artists representing many musical genres.

Tom developed and produced contemporary audio-visual concerts for venues and organisations including Sydney Opera House, South Bank Centre, Royal Opera House, Brighton Festival, No-Nation and Music Beyond Mainstream, and international touring projects with The Light Surgeons and CDR.

Joining the British Council music team in 2015, Tom has worked extensively developing music programmes in Europe and south Asia. He led on the creation of: 'Envision Sound', a film scoring programme for emerging composers; Selector PRO, a music industry capacity building programme; and 'Creative Producers', a project to develop cross-sectoral arts practice and ecosystems across Europe. He has played a key role in the shaping and delivery of large-scale programmes, grant schemes and Briitsh Council 'seasons' in countries including Ukraine, Pakistan, India and many others.

Since 2022, Tom has taken on the relationship management role of our very own Selector Radio and overseen the partnership delivery of the new Selector Presents live events at The Great Escape festival in Brighton and South by Southwest (SXSW) in Texas, USA.

Personal highlights from his time at British Council include working with Boiler Room to deliver their inaugural events in Pakistan and Uzbekistan, leading on the contemporary music programme for the UK-Russia Year of Music in 2019 and working with Brian Eno to present his generative audio-visual work 77 Million Paintings at the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.