Emerging composers

Streetwise Opera is commissioning an emerging composer in each of the cities we work in: London, Manchester and Nottingham, as part of the project Mixtape: 25 songs from our past, present and future.

Each composer will receive a commission fee of £1,200 for the finished composition. This is the Musicians’ Union rate for this type of commission, of this length. The work is to be 3 minutes long. An additional fee of £150 per session is offered for delivering co-creation sessions with participants, with each session last two hours and requiring an hour of preparation (so £50 per hour). We anticipate each composer attending three of these, for a total of approximately 9 hours work across the autumn term.

Mixtape celebrates Streetwise Opera’s 25th anniversary through a collection of music and stories shaped by performers and artists across the company’s history. Bringing together much-loved repertoire from past productions with new commissions created for the anniversary, Mixtape reflects Streetwise Opera’s past, present and future.

The selected composers will work with service users in frontline homelessness settings, such as hostels, day centres or refuges, to co-create the words and music for a micro-opera lasting approximately three minutes. Created collaboratively over a series of five sessions, each of these pieces will tell a complete story.

An emerging composer would usually be someone who:

* Has moved beyond being a complete beginner or student.
* Can provide convincing examples of completed work.
* Has had some performances, commissions, collaborations or professional activity.
* Has not yet developed a sustained national profile or regular portfolio of substantial commissions.
* Would benefit materially from mentorship, a first significant commission, working at a new scale or developing professional networks.

Mixtape is funded by Lottery Players via The National Lottery Heritage Fund.