Sounds now

SPOR is a partner in a LARGE SCALE CREATIVE EUROPA project about diversity

Under the title Sounds Now, nine of Europe's leading festivals and cultural centers for new music will promote more variety and diversity in the way music is curated. SPOR festival is the Danish partner in the multi-year project, which is financed by the EU's Creative Europe programme 2020-2024.

10 years of history
Sounds Now started 10 years ago, when SPOR helped start the NICAF network for 8-10 European festivals from all over Europe. It began as a collegial community with the aim of having some international festival colleagues to link with..

The network had a common understanding that there was a need for change in relation to the relationship with the audience and a greater diversity when it comes to composers, cultures and the festivals' own understanding of the scene. That was the starting point for Sounds Now. The entire network joined the project, and a few new partners joined.

Facts about Sounds Now:

Sounds Now is a multi-pronged program which focuses on new and upcoming artists and curators as a sustainable way to promote inclusion in contemporary music, experimental music and sound art.

Sounds Now is a network of nine festivals and cultural centers that will launch a program of workshops, mentoring, productions, experiments and research that explores the social and artistic impact of the curator's role in contemporary music. These activities will contribute to a discourse on music curation, which is lacking today, by providing experience to the performers in a wide range of social and cultural contexts. It must ensure a diversification of the existing group of curators by creating new concrete paths into the industry for people "from the outside".

The program creates actions targeting participants across Europe. It includes coaching, collaborative laboratories with established international curators, tests of innovative forms of curation, the creation of new works and networks, an official learning course and research.

Partners:

BE                  Musica, Neerpelt (koordinator)
BE                  Wilde Westen, Kortrijk
BE                  Festival van Vlaanderen Vlaams-Brabant vzw (also known as Transit), Leuven
DK                 SPOR festival, Arhus
FI                   Viitasaaren Kesäakatemia Ry (også kendt som Time of Music), Viitasaari
NL                 Stichting November Music, ’s-Hertogenbosch
NO                 Stiftelsen Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival (også kendt som Ultima), Oslo
UK                 Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Huddersfield
GR                 Ariona Hellas (also known as Onassis Cultural Centre), Athen