Summer Festival: Industry Day

Sessions, talks and workshops focussing on career development in the music and performance industries.

10:30AM: MINDFULNESS FOR PEOPLE WHO CREATE STUFF
Will Blackstone
A little mindfulness practice. Discussion and sharing of experience. How to bring mindfulness to the stage/the practice room/life.

11:30AM: EMOTIONS AND PERFORMANCE ANXIETY
MITOS: Marie El-Khazen and Naomi Trentham
Exploring why understanding our emotions and how they work in our body is critical for managing performance anxiety.

12:30PM: EMOTIONS AND PERFORMANCE ANXIETY | DROP-IN
Chat to Marie or Naomi one-to-one. An opportunity to ask questions following their Emotions and Performance Anxiety session.

1:05PM: LUNCHTIME CONCERT
Whistlestop Opera: A Tale of Orpheus & Eurydice

2PM: WHISTLESTOP OPERA Q&A
An opportunity to chat to the cast of the Whistlestop Opera performance.

2:30PM: LETTERS TO MY YOUNGER SELF: HOW GRADUATES' STORIES CAN HELP YOU TO BE THE AUTHOR OF YOUR OWN FUTURE
Join Dr Kate Blackstone to hear career advice from over 30 music graduates. At this workshop you can expect a mixture of practical steps and self reflective activities to help you make the most of your degree and your first steps into your chosen profession.

3:30PM: AUTHENTICITY IN THE ARTS: CREATING A FULFILLING AND SUCCESSFUL CAREER
A career in the performing arts is unlike that in any other industry, and yet we often expect it to conform to traditional job expectations. Join career coach and musician George Strickland in this interactive session to explore what success, authenticity, and "making it" means to you in whichever path you choose.

5:00PM: END OF DAY CONCERT
The Ashatones

Graduate Profile

Will Blackstone
BMus, graduated 2015

Will studied his Undergraduate degree at the University of Leeds, and enjoyed a varied University performance career in which he played in student orchestras, and directed the celebrated Leeds University Union Big Band for two years.

Since graduating from the University of Leeds in 2015, Will has built up a busy portfolio of performance and teaching work, playing in various Big Bands, small groups and party bands across the country and in Europe, playing both drums and trumpet.

Will is deeply invested in the potential for mindfulness to help performers, creatives and people in every area of life. He runs weekly sessions in Leeds: "Mindfulness for People who Create Stuff" and hopes to bring elements of mindfulness and meditation to as many creative people who wish to learn it.

Graduate Profile

Marie El-Khazen
BA Music, graduated 2010

Marie is passionate about seeing individuals connect with who they are, the values they are driven by and identifying what stands in the way of them achieving their best. Marie’s approach is clear, direct and nurturing. She works with leaders across all sectors and at any level to enable them to understand the value they bring, whatever environments they find themselves in. Marie has a MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology with a focus on the wellbeing of professional musicians and is an accredited Strengthscope and Emotion Coach practitioner. Her coaching approach is integrated across a number of models and tailored to suit each individual and their particular needs and requirements. Marie continues to engage in ongoing CPD in Grief & Loss, Mental Health & Young People, Polyvagal Theory, Trauma Informed Approaches, ACES and Safeguarding.

Graduate Profile

Kate Blackstone
PhD

Dr Kate Blackstone is a music psychology researcher dedicated to empowering early career musicians to find their own success and create fulfilling music careers. She holds a PhD from the University of Leeds, where she completed a study exploring the career aspirations and transitions of conservatoire graduates. Since then she has been a member of research groups based at the University of Leeds and Lucerne School of Music, working on projects investigating Faculty of Arts graduates’ career destinations and music students’ wellbeing. A conservatoire graduate herself, Kate studied at the RNCM and the University of Manchester before building a freelance music career, combining a busy teaching schedule with regular performance engagements as a clarinettist. As a founder member of the Kaleidoscope Orchestra, Kate is equally at home playing to crowds of thousands of clubbers in Liverpool’s Sefton Park as she is playing contemporary music for fun amongst friends. Kate also manages the Young Classical Artists Trust's 21st Century Musician programme of career development events and resources.

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Graduate Profile

George Strickland
BA Music, graduated 2013

George is a musical director based in Manchester. He graduated with a masters in performance from the Royal Northern College of Music in 2017 after studying music at the University of Leeds. Since graduating, George has focussed on musical direction, and has enjoyed a varied career as a musical director, vocal coach, and orchestrator working across many genres.

George has performed around the country at venues including Cadogan Hall, Wigmore Hall, The Royal Albert Hall, The Other Palace, The Union Theatre, Kings Head Theatre Pub and the Bridgewater Hall, as well as appearing on CBBC with the West End Musical Choir.

He is also passionate about creating and promoting new music. He has been MD/keys, and orchestrator/arranger on many recordings of new works including “(Hey) Jude Taylor”, “Steep Themselves in Night”, “Make Me Infamous” (all by Jude Taylor), “Subway” (by Gus Gowland), and the brand new musical “Bird Brigade" (by Lara De Belder and Luka Bjelis), and performed on “Philip Henderson: From the Old World to the New World”. His Bette Midler Revue “Bette: From Bathhouse to Broadway” (co-written with Jonathan Booth) has been performed at Brighton and Greater Manchester Fringes and a tour is being planned for 2022.

He also works as an orchestrator and arranger and has had his work performed around the UK. George’s previous work includes Lucie Jones At Christmas (Her Majesty’s Theatre, London/St David’s Hall, Cardiff) Jason Mansford's Christmas Charity Concert (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester) and An Evening with Rob King (The Lowry, Salford). He has also worked on orchestrations, vocal arrangements and tracks for the UK Tour of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” (Red Entertainment).

George is a freelance vocal/repertoire coach and has worked as a musical director for the RNCM Young Company, StageBox, and vocal coach at Phil Winston’s Theatreworks, The Northern Ballet School and Shockout Arts. He has also been a visiting rehearsal pianist and repertoire/vocal coach at The Arden, LIPA and other performing arts colleges in the North of England.

Current/Upcoming Projects: Bette: From Bathhouse to Broadway (Co-writer and MD: UK Tour), A Spoonful of Julie (Pianist: UK Tour), Bird Brigade (MD/Orchestrator: The Other Palace May 2022), The Spitfire Grill (MD: Liverpool June 2022)

Recent credits: Soul Sisters (MD: UK Tour), Is He Musical (Music Supervisor/Orchestrations: Leicester Curve), Good Fun (MD: Kings Head Theatre), The Regulars in Concert (MD: Hope Mill), Lucie Jones at Christmas (Orchestrator: Lambert Jackson), Sweet Charity (MD: RNCM), “Urinetown” (MD: RNCM).

For more information on George’s work please find him on Facebook (George Strickland Music), Twitter and Instagram (gstrickland91).