Artist Development Days
Jazz North’s Artist Development Days are in-person networking events hosted in partnership with brilliant venues and festivals around the North of England once or twice a year. These events are relaxed and informative spaces for meeting like-minded musicians and getting practical advice from fantastic industry people.
Previous artist development days have been held in partnership with Leeds Jazz Festival, Lancaster Jazz Festival and Brighter Sound. Our Jazz North x Leeds Jazz Festival Artist Social in June 2022 featured brilliant speakers and sessions on funding, finance and how to get those all important gigs. In September 2023, we teamed up with Lancaster Jazz Festival to bring 1:1 industry sessions to their Inspire Artist Conference, a day dedicated to artist practice and led by artist-activist Kim Macari.
See below for latest events.
Jazz North x Brighter Sound
The Yard
Manchester
Jazz North and Brighter Sound are teamed up to host a relaxed and informative artist networking event at one of Manchester's most loved venues for jazz, The Yard. Flipping the usual day on its head, we kicked off with a jam hosted by Manchester's Xaris (Trees.R.Good) and Mara Cruz before diving into a day of real conversation about what it means to shape your career as a jazz+ artist.
We were joined by four fantastic artist-facilitators from different walks of jazz including Afro-psychedelic funk trombonist & percussionist Hannabiell Sanders (Hannabiell & the Midnight Blue, Ladies of the Midnight Blue), Alt-Soul singer August Charles, multi-instrumentalist electronic leaning artist Alan Keary (Shunya) and Private Joy aka Pops Roberts (Lovescene).
Upcoming
Fri 13 Sept 2024
LJF X Jazz North
11:00am - 17:00pm
The Gregson Centre
Lancaster
Inspire Artist Conference Day
Previous
23 May 2024
27 Mar 2024
Inspire Artist Conference
The Storey Lecture Theatre
Lancaster Jazz Festival, Lancaster
8 Sept 2023
Are you a musician looking to develop your career and connect with artists?
Lancaster Jazz Festival and Jazz North are teaming up to bring another edition of the Inspire Artist Conference Day on Friday 13th September at The Gregson Centre in Lancaster. This free-to-attend artist-led day is all about creative practice and developing skills across your career.
Supporting festival director Lucy Woolley to host the day, Nishla Smith will be guiding you through sessions, facilitating 1:1s and topping and tailing the sessions.
Sector leading artists will be touching on topics including building creative communities, establishing your brand and responding to the political landscape. You’ll have a choice of artist roundtables with Mark Kavuma and Charlotte Keefe and an extended networking session with lunch included where you can connect 1:1 with friendly and informative organisations like Groundswell (Jane Dalton), worthwHyle Marketing (Rebecca Coughlan), PRS for Music (Dan Jones), Sentric (Lily Blakeney-Evans) and Arts Council England (David Gaffney). In the afternoon, Black Lives in Music will be chairing a panel session on navigating the political landscape as an artist.
Come and join the conversation.
This event is free to attend and open to all artists at every level. Lunch will be provided.
Full details and lineup available at lancasterjazz.com. Check back for more updates about our artist lineup.
Register your attendance here - https://forms.gle/zytBExGQskuMVstn7
Bursaries
Jazz North are offering a number of travel bursaries up to £50. These will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis (providing you are eligible) for artists attending the conference. We are extending the deadline so any remaining bursaries will be available right up to the 13th September. Please complete your application for a bursary - https://forms.gle/srn3Bn1NP5vuLXRF6
Jazz North will be in contact between 22-30th August to confirm whether you will receive a bursary. Please make your bursary application by no later than the 28th August.
Jazz North and Lancaster Jazz Festival teamed up to run an open, creative and inspirational conference day for artists, hosted by artist and activist Kim Macari. It was an opportunity to connect with each other and the industry, and to learn and develop from provocative artist focussed discussions.
The day offered a series of insightful panel discussions and conversations with established industry leading artists, finding out about their practice and careers – alongside one-to-one opportunities to connect with funders, industry specialists, and much more.
Speakers included Orphy Robinson, Alexander Hawkins and there were one-to-one sit down opportunities with representatives from Arts Council England, Sentric Music and Groundswell Innovation.
Leeds Jazz Festival and Jazz North teamed up to bring you a relaxed and informative event for artists on the afternoon of Thursday 23rd May at Hyde Park Book Club with our partners, Launchpad. As part of our support for emerging artists, Jazz North will be releasing a comprehensive guide to kicking off your live career in jazz: our Emerging Artists’ Live Toolkit.
This day is all about taking a deep dive into some of those topics, connecting with like-minded artists and sharing your own insights. With the help of some three brilliant guest speakers (see below), we will be exploring creative identity, establishing your values and goals, finding your place on the live music scene and growing your live and online audience.
Jazz North x Brighter Sound
The Yard
Manchester
Leeds Jazz Festival x Jazz North Artist Social
Belgrave Music Hall
Leeds
5 June 2022
Jazz North and Launchpad teamed up to facilitate a relaxed and informative artist networking event. Attendees spent a short while hearing from industry folk about practical ways to help develop their careers. There was a chance to meet and connect with other artists alongside roundtable advice sessions for some direct support.
Speakers included: David Porter (J-Night, Hull Jazz Festival), Jenny Harris (Freelance Programmer and Producer, HAR), Sam (whiskas) Nicholls (Music:Leeds, Launchpad), Sally Currie (Jazz North), Steve Mead (Jazz North, mjf), Jay Auty and David Culbert (HMUK) .