The Alan James Creative Bursary and Residency Programme, now in its eighth year, aims to support artists in exploring new creative ideas inspired by and sourced from traditional English folk music, without the pressure of a final product.
Alan James, a former Chair of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, died suddenly in April 2019. In the spirit of Alan’s eclectic musical tastes and his ability to foster exciting artistic collaborations, we are particularly interested in receiving applications which explore English folk music in the context of cross-genre or cross-art form collaborations and explorations.
The Alan James Bursaries are funded through the PRS Foundation’s Talent Development Partner scheme.
Bursaries for 2020 have been awarded to:
Marie Bashiru
Inspired by the book Electric Eden, the singer/songwriter will investigate cultural cross-pollination in folk music in the UK: Rastafarian song, songs of the Black and Asian civil rights movement, recordings of folk songs that never saw commercial success.
Katy Bennett
Worryface: the research and development stage of a performance piece exploring lived experience of Functional Neurological Disorder (FND) through music, song, storytelling and spoken word, working with theatre-maker Francesca Millican-Slater.
Jo Freya
The multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer will explore traditional tunes in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library archive with jazz musician Annie Whitehear, using them as a vehicle for a collaboration of ideas.
Roan Long
The banjo player, guitarist, singer and song writer will celebrate traditional music from Cumbria, The Lake District, Westmorland and Cumberland, linking historical stories to issues of today and working with local artist/illustrator Emma Haddow and designer/writer Sophie Bryde.
Maz O’Connor
The English singer and songwriter’s piece of music theatre The Wife of Michael Cleary will be based on the true story of a woman who was burned to death by her husband and family in Tipperary in 1895, because they believed her to be a faery changeling.
Hugh Sheehan
Lost Time will document and amplify the voices Birmingham’s queer community. The work will be rooted in folk music, and will also draw from improvisatory musics, contemporary music and electronic music.
