The English Folk Dance and Song Society’s Creative Bursary and Residency Programme, now in its eleventh year, supports 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. We now name these Creative Bursaries in his honour. In the spirit of Alan’s eclectic musical tastes and his ability to foster exciting artistic collaborations, we have encouraged applications which explore English folk music in the context of cross-genre or cross-art form collaborations and explorations.
Six creative bursaries have been awarded, all of which are funded through the PRS for Music Foundation Talent Development Partner scheme. They come under the umbrella of our Artists’ Development Programme, which provides professional development support, both creative and business, to artists at all levels of their career.
Each bursary is worth up to £2,000, and supports artists’ creative research and development together with use of rehearsal space at Cecil Sharp House and access to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.
Bursaries for 2023 have been awarded to:
Satnam Galsian and Maddie Morris
Satnam Galsian is a British-Asian vocalist who explores the connections between north Indian and western music traditions.
Maddie Morris is a folk artist who takes traditional song in new directions to shine a light on contemporary issues.
The two Leeds-based artists will explore the use of metaphor and stories relating to gender-based violence and cultural expectations of women within traditional English and Punjabi folk songs during this residency. Through this collaboration they will analyse and examine the way traditional narratives overlap and differ in the hope to create new work and arrangements that foster cross-cultural connection and empower survivors.
Photo credit: Aoife Foxley
Tarren
Bristol-based Tarren is an ambassador for new-folk; music that is fresh and dynamic, rooted in the English tradition. Original and traditional material is expertly arranged by this trio of musicians including Sid Goldsmith, Alex Garden and Danny Pedler who are creating music that moves and excites people. By incorporating modular hooks and minimalist forms, Tarren is leading folk music to a new place, while keeping the pulse of traditional dance at its heart.
The Alan James Creative Bursary will support research into gender in traditional song, identifying trends of binary stereotyping and reinforcement within the genre and finding opportunities for incorporating gender-inclusive discourse.
Photo credit: Archie Thomas
The Rheingans Sisters
After a decade releasing critically celebrated albums (BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners of ‘Best Original Track’ 2016 and ‘Best Group’ nominees in 2019) and touring across the UK, Europe and as far as Australia, The Rheingans Sisters will release their much-anticipated fifth studio album in 2024. Produced by New York based Adam Pietrykowski, the visionary band’s new album will be a grounded yet soaring sonic continuation of the sisters’ already celebrated genre of “avant-garde trad” (Songlines).
The Rheingans Sisters will embark on a special residency at Cecil Sharp House to explore multi-layered performance techniques ahead of touring their new album in 2024.
Photo credit: Elly Lucas
Rowan Sawday AKA Dizraeli
Rapper, producer, firestarter. Songwriter, multi instrumentalist-raconteur... Rowan Sawday, most known for his work as Dizraeli, is ‘a genre of his own’. From his debut solo album Engurland (City Shanties) to touring the world and releasing the acclaimed Moving In The Dark with The Small Gods, on the way collaborating with artists as diverse as Kae Tempest, Jam Baxter and Eliza Carthy... and releasing his solo masterpiece The Unmaster, nominated for Album of the Year by Gilles Peterson in the 2020 Worldwide Awards... Dizraeli has always forged his own way.
During the pandemic Rowan became a father to twin boys and the bursary from EFDSS will support the creation of an album distributed via DSPs, that can be played to babies to lull them.
Photo credit: Giulia Spadafora
Femi Oriogun-Williams
Femi Oriogun-Williams is a musician, writer, audio producer and educator born at 00:00 under a Taurus moon to a room of laughing people. Their album OK Galexa was originally a radio drama commissioned by Sound Art Radio in Devon and funded by Arts Council England about two AI voice assistants who survive the mass extinction of the human species. Femi also created a one off radio special for the Goethe Institut and Weimar Radio in which they entered into dialogue with cultural African-American heavyweights Nina Simone and James Baldwin, turning to their archival legacies to seek advice over questions of identity and belonging in and on the European continent.
This bursary will support Femi to create a song cycle, drawing on links between historic struggles that have been documented in English folklore with struggles that are still ongoing.
Borges Machado
After a few years working together in several music projects, André Borges and Fernando Machado decided to join forces as Borges Machado in 2018. Their experimental duo works with songwriting, improvisation and field recordings. Their debut album, Building Sites, released in the summer of 2020, consists of sound art pieces inspired by urban soundscapes.
Borges Machado is preparing a new album which intends to take on an interdisciplinary approach bringing visual arts, storytelling, movement and music together in order to create a unique sensory experience.
Photo credit: Gareth Wildig
Read more about the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s bursaries
Katy Spicer, Chief Executive and Artistic Director, said: ‘Our bursaries are designed to kick-start projects, giving artists time to bring their ideas to life. We are delighted to pay tribute to Alan James with these six exciting and eclectic projects and very grateful to the PRS Foundation for their continued support.’
Recent English Folk Dance and Song Society creative bursaries have kick-started ground-breaking and far-reaching projects such as Angeline Morrison’s The Sorrow Songs, Sophie Crawford and George Sansome’s Queer Folk, Stick in the Wheel’s Perspectives on Tradition, Rowan Rheingans’ Dispatches on the Red Dress, and many more.
For further media information please contact Peter Craik (Director of Marketing and Communications):
About the English Folk Dance and Song Society
The English Folk Dance and Song Society is the national development agency for the folk arts. It aims to place the traditional arts of England at the heart of our cultural life – preserving, protecting, disseminating and promoting English traditional folk arts. It delivers a dynamic national and local education programme, enabling and increasing access to the folk arts alongside celebrating diversity and promoting equality. It runs the acclaimed National Youth Folk Ensemble. It supports folk artists through a flourishing artists development programme. It manages the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library – England’s national folk music library and archive – which contains a vast collection of books, manuscripts, films and audio-visual materials. The national custom-built headquarters of EFDSS is Cecil Sharp House, a busy arts centre situated just north of Regent’s Park in central London. efdss.org
About PRS Foundation
PRS Foundation supports organisations from across the UK which have been selected as PRS Foundation Talent Development Partners. These organisations are working at the frontline of talent development in the UK, supporting a broad range of individual music creators across different music genres and UK regions. This reflects PRS Foundation’s commitment to supporting composers and songwriters of all backgrounds either through direct investment or by helping organisations which nurture music creators and promote their music to audiences at home and overseas. prsfoundation.com
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