England

About Sound and Music
Sound and Music is the coming together of four organisations to create the UK’s first national development agency for sound and music.

Sound and Music is the UK’s landmark agency for new music and sound, working in partnership with complementary organisations to raise awareness of this vital and inspiring art form.

It brings together practitioners, producers and promoters under one roof, with the ambition to attract bigger and more diverse audiences to engage with innovative and sometimes challenging work.

British Music Information Centre (BMIC)
Founded in 1967, BMIC has been a leading promotion and documentation resource for 20th and 21st century music in the UK. It brings to SAM its unique collection of scores, recordings and background information on music in Great Britain, representing more than 2800 composers. BMIC is also responsible for the event series the Cutting Edge and Cutting Edge Tour and the New Voices and Contemporary Voices initiatives, which promote the work of young British composers.

Contemporary Music Network (CMN)
The Contemporary Music Network has been involved in the contemporary music scene for 35 years. Based within Arts Council England’s music department, CMN produces high quality live contemporary music tours and events, such as Kill Your Timid Notion.

Sonic Arts Network (SAN)
Sonic Arts Network was set up in 1979 to produce events – such as the Cut & Splice series and the Expo festival – that bring the best new and existing work by sound artists from around the world to inspire British audiences and practitioners. In 1989 SAN realised its first educational project at the Huddersfield Festival of Contemporary Music and continued its commitment to facilitating learning at all levels with workshops at Expo events, leading the education programme for Sonic Boom in 2000 and flagship education project, Sonic Postcards.

SPNM (Society for the Promotion of New Music)
Founded in 1943, SPNM was a membership organisation for people with an interest in new music. It was particularly committed to finding the best of the next generation of composers. SPNM initiatives such as the award-winning Sound Inventors programme, The Shortlist, Adopt a Composer and Composing for Kids helped to launch the careers of many of the UK's leading composers. SPNM also brings to Sound and Music its Sound Source experimental music nights throughout the UK.

Live Events

Sound and Music will expand upon the work of its founders , with performances, tours, and regular festivals such as The Cutting Edge, Fertilizer, The Sound Source and Expo, promoting and producing a full programme of live events scheduled in to 2010 and beyond.

Knowledge and Resources

We believe the more you know about what you’re listening to, the better time you’ll have and the more you’ll get out of the experience. From pre-event information, articles and related material, to our collection of over 40 years’ worth of archive scores and recordings by modern British composers, we have access to extensive resources, both on and off-line, to enhance the context for the current music and arts scene.

Digital Network

We are committed to giving as many people as possible access to the art of sound and music. The hub for all our resources, activities and events, soundandmusic.org brings together a huge network of artists, publishers, promoters and music fans, as well as a social space, in the shape of the SAM Network. From creating your own profile, bookmarking articles, favourite audio and visual links, to the most comprehensive listings in the UK, soundandmusic.org is a new place to share, learn and create – a kind of virtual venue for music and sound in the UK.

Learning and Participation

Spanning the spectrum of musical experience – from the first encounters of young people to the support and development of professional artists – we launch with a broad programme of initiatives to create opportunities to discover, learn and create, inspiring greater understanding of the work and engagement with this vital art form.