Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
We will be closed from 5pm Friday 20th December and we will re-open at 9am on Monday 6th January 2020.
We hope you all have a lovely time over the festive season and we look forward to working with you in 2020.
Very best Christmas wishes to you all,
The Birnam team.
The Help Musicians UK Transmission Fund provides grants of £500 – £1,500 to fund opportunities that focus on developing creative practice and furthering professional development. It’s open to emerging and professional musicians (instrumentalist, composer, producer, conductor, vocalist or singer-songwriter etc and bands or ensembles consisting of 6 members or less) of all genres and disciplines.
The fund can be used to support:
The deadline for applications is 10th January 2020.
For more information please visit:
https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/creative-programme/current-opportunities/transmission-fund
2019 MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards – Voting open. The Music Awards highlight Scotland’s traditional music in all its forms. The winners will be announced at the award ceremony which this year will be held in Aberdeen Music Hall on 7th December.
The Shortlist categories include:
Album of the Year
Belhaven Bursary for Innovation
Club of the Year,
Composer of the Year,
Community Project of the Year
Event of the Year
Gaelic Singer of the Year,
Musician of the Year, Live Act of the Year,
Citty Finlayson Scots Singer of the Year,
Scottish Dance Band of the Year,
Scottish Folk Band of the Year,
Scottish Pipe Band of the Year,
Trad Video of the Year
Music Tutor of the Year,
Up and Coming Artist of the Year,
Venue of the Year,
To vote for your favourite or to buy a ticket for the awards please visit: https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/scotstradmusicawards/voting/
The Peter Whittingham Jazz Award Fund is a £5,000 award given to an emerging jazz musician or group to enable them to undertake a creative project which will support their professional development. The award can be used to fund recording, filming, touring, performances, mentoring, collaboration, promotion.
It’s open to creative, ambitious and committed jazz musicians and groups who can demonstrate that the proposed project will help develop their career. To apply, musicians are asked to provide a biography detailing musical development, recent activities within the jazz scene and career achievements. Two recordings of music must also be submitted and at least one must be an original composition.
Deadline for submissions is 9 am, Monday 14th October 2019.
Applicants will then be shortlisted for audition which will be held in London on Friday 1st November 2019.
For more information please visit: https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/creative-programme/current-opportunities/peter-whittingham-jazz-award
SAY Awards – voting open. The public vote for the SAY Awards 2019 is now open. The 72 hour public voting window for the Scottish Album of The Year is open now and closes at midnight this Wednesday, 14th August. The Longlisted album which secures the most votes will automatically gain a place on the Shortlist, as well as a guaranteed minimum prize of £1,000.
A further 9 albums, decided by the SAY Award judging panel, will make up the shortlist which will be announced live on BBC Radio Scotland on Thursday 15th August between 9-10pm.
The Scottish Album of the Year Award ceremony will take place at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh on Friday 6 September 2019. The winning artist will pick up a £20,000 cash prize, with the 9 runners up each being awarded £1,000. Each Shortlisted artist will also receive an exclusively designed piece of artwork from the SAY Award Design Commission.
To place your vote, please visit: https://www.sayaward.com/
The Tasgadh fund provides small grants for traditional arts. The fund is managed by Fèisean nan Gàidheal and aims to provide support for traditional artists and organisations, enabling them to create, perform, tour and showcase work. The fund can also be used to support professional development and learning projects.
There are three application dates for 2019-20:
26 July 2019
25 October 2019
31 January 2020
For more information and specific guidelines, please visit: https://www.feisean.org/en/tasgadh/
BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician 2020 – applications open.
BBC Radio Scotland Young Traditional Musician 2020 is open for applications. The deadline for entries is 5pm on Wednesday 24th July 2019. The competition is open to individual musicians who stay in Scotland and are aged between 16 and 27 years as of the 24th July 2019.
To enter the competition, entrants must submit:
A panel of judges will review all entries and select a shortlist of up to 12 entrants. Following the semi-finals the judges will select 6 finalists who will then be invited to perform at the final which will be held in Glasgow on Sunday 2nd February 2020 as part of Celtic Connections Festival.
For more information and to apply please visit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3KxTvJZ6N0wkdj1C6qCdQZF/bbc-radio-scotland-young-traditional-musician-2020
The Fusion Fund – Help Musicians UK offers £2 – £5,000 for professional musicians to undertake UK-based projects that develop and test new work, ideas or potential career directions through inspiring periods of collaborative research and development. Help Musicians UK is looking for exciting collaborations that create work across art forms, creative sectors and other disciplines. Applications need to be music-focused and projects should include contributions from at least one non-music discipline i.e, lighting designers, visual artists, gaming designers…
The fund is open to professional and emerging professional musicians of all genres and disciplines; solo instrumentalists, conductors, composers, singer songwriters, multidisciplinary artists, bands or ensembles with six members or less.
There are a further two funding rounds in 2019. Application deadlines 10th June 2019 and 2nd September 2019.
For more information please visit: https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/creative-programme/current-opportunities/fusion-fund
The Scottish Jazz Awards 2019 – voting open. The Jazz awards celebrate Scotland’s vibrant jazz scene and provide an opportunity to recognise the wide breadth of musical talent.
A panel of industry specialists, including media, press and promoters from across the UK, select the shortlists for the following categories of awards:
Rising Star Award sponsored by The Blue Arrow
Best Band Award sponsored by Musicians’ Union
Best Vocalist Award sponsored by Whigham’s Jazz Club.
Best Instrumentalist Award sponsored by ESP Music Rentals
Best Album Award sponsored by Birnam CD
New this year is the Services to Scottish Jazz Award, sponsored by Ticketmaster, which will recognise and celebrate those working behind the scenes. A Lifetime Achievement Award in association with Help Musicians Scotland will also be presented at the awards ceremony with both winners chosen by the panel. Previous winners include Fionna Duncan, Carol Kidd, Bobby Wellins, Tam White and Ronnie Rae.
Public voting closes at 5pm on Tuesday 21 May. To vote, please visit: http://www.jazzfest.co.uk/awards/
The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at Drygate Brewery on Sunday 9 June. If you’d like to purchase tickets for the Scottish Jazz Awards please visit: Jazz Awards 2019 Tickets.
The Scottish Community Music Awards 2019 are open for nominations. The Awards celebrate music teachers, community projects, young musicians, community organisations and composers, who, through music, make a difference to communities across Scotland. The Awards encompass a wide range of music groups including pipe bands, recorder groups, orchestras, ensembles, choirs, samba bands… across a wide range of musical genres.
The 5 categories are:
Nominations in each of the categories will be assessed by a panel of industry experts and a shortlist of 3 for each category will be announced in May. Nominations close on 30th April and the public can vote for their favourites from May with the winners announced in June.
To find out more and to nominate please visit: handsupfortrad/chorusawards