Meet the Music Patron team – 01/11/2021
Music Patron is a brand new digital startup incubated within Sound and Music to connect composers directly with patrons. We’re close to announcing our first cohort of incredible composers and can’t wait to introduce them, however, before we do that we thought we’d take the opportunity to introduce ourselves.
Sonia Stevenson
I’ve been working on Music Patron for year and I can honestly say it’s been one of the most interesting and rewarding chapters in my career.
My professional background has spanned many different parts of the music business. I founded my own festival, St Andrews Voices, dedicated to vocal and choral music. I’ve also worked as a Composer Agent, Project Consultant at Macbeth Media Relations, Artistic Director of Lichfield Festival, Promotion Manager at Faber Music, PA to the conductor/composer Esa-Pekka Salonen, Artist Manager at Connaught Artists and Concerts Department Assistant at the Philharmonia Orchestra.
One of the threads running through all this work, has been helping composers and promoting new music. Composers are extraordinary people, but their work is often undervalued. I believe the creation of new music is fundamental to the life-blood of all music. If we want new, rich, interesting music and sounds in our lives, we need to do something to change the status quo for composers. By democratising philanthropy and offering many more people the opportunity to directly support a composer, we can bring about real change. And in doing so, we can bring unique value and benefit to patrons. That’s my drive to create Music Patron.
Matt Harvey
My professional background has seen me take on a variety of roles, from being an actor in the West End to running orchestra sessions and marketing departments. I’ve always orbited the arts world and joining Music Patron has given me the opportunity to combine my experience as a musician and composer with my knowledge of the digital marketing world.
To me, one of the most exciting things about Music Patron is the opportunity to connect Patrons with Composers. One of my favourite things so far in the process has been talking to a huge variety of composers and finding out their influences, process and background. There are so many amazing stories out there in the music world, and I find it incredibly rewarding that my job is to facilitate telling these and getting patrons as excited as I am about new music & the composers that create it.
Sound and Music is an incredible organisation; in the relatively short space of time I’ve been here I’ve seen first-hand just how much the entire team really care about music and supporting artists. We’re incredibly lucky to have Music Patron incubated within Sound and Music and I feel privileged to be part of this team.
We’d love to keep in touch with you about Music Patron. You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter here and follow us on our journey to support new music.