Southampton Music Hub is bringing a free Open Studio, Instrument Petting Zoo and Bamboo Tamboo workshop to the programme of the exciting new festival What’s Next Southampton?

What’s Next Southampton?

Free summer festival for children, young people and families

Saturday 24 June 12 – 6pm | Guildhall Square and Cultural Quarter Venues, SO14 7DU

What’s Next Southampton? is a free arts, fashion and music festival for children, young people and families. Enjoy indie, rap and R&B on the main stage. Join in with African Drumming, Bollywood Dancing, creative writing, theatre and music across the cultural quarter. Take part in a collaborative mural and join us for a fashion show finale!

Book your free place

Booking is now open for What’s Next Southampton?

Free summer festival for children, young people and families

Saturday 24 June 12 – 6pm

Guildhall Square and Cultural Quarter Venues, SO14 7DU

What’s Next Southampton? is a free arts, fashion and music festival for children, young people and families. Free activities and performances will spread across the square and Cultural Quarter venues.

The line-up is brought to you by six Cultural Connectors, aged 17-26 years. They’ve explored what young people want in the city and created a colourful festival.

Enjoy indie music from Belle Dame Band as well as rap and R&B from Amy Da Silva, Leah Tolksdorf Music, and LawZzy.

Have a go at African Drumming or Bollywood Dancing. Step inside an inflatable ‘brain dome’. Join in with creative writing, theatre and music workshops. Build your contacts with creative careers talks and networking. Or test your balance with a skateboarding drop-in.

With vintage clothing to browse and a collaborative mural to colour, the square will be alive with creativity!

Book your free place

You’ll gain access to advance programme notifications and entry into a prize draw

The event is part of Connecting Culture, a ground-breaking project led by the University of Southampton and supported by Arts Council England.

On a beautifully sunny May evening, 13 schools from across the Isle of Wight came together for their very own unique coronation celebration; in front of an audience of over 1000 at Osborne House. In partnership with English Heritage, the event was produced by Southampton and IOW Music Hub.

All the participating schools chose songs related to the coronation, from the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis, to The Lion King and everything in between. One school even created their own song! The Isle of Wight Music Centre Wind Band children's wind band began the evening with the national anthem and entertained the audience with a selection from the Greatest Showman later in the concert.

One teacher said:

“Seeing children who are often shy in class singing in front of such a big crowd with enormous beaming smiles shows the immeasurable impact the event had on so many children. The children from our school absolutely loved it and  I know I went home with a huge smile too.”

This Saturday (29 April), Southampton Music Hub is bringing it’s FLOW Rap workshop and an Open Music Studio to MAST Mayflower Studios’ Family Fun Day.

10.30am-12noon: Flow

Flow rap group sessions are designed to tighten up your rhythms, sharpen your rhymes and improve your flow. These workshops are run as part of the Digital Native Artists (DNA) Programme. This workshop will be open access as part of the MAST Family Day, and regular members are very welcome to attend in the usual way.

Drop in between 1-3pm: Open Studio

• Visit our digital music studio

• meet the team

• get feedback on your tunes

• meet other producers, beatmakers and songwriters

• find out about the support available for young digital music-makers

In the last two weeks of Spring Term, ten of the Southampton Music Hubs ensembles gave some amazing performances. As always, all groups performed to a very high standard and played with great energy and enthusiasm. With music from musical theatre, film scores, pop classics, classical repertoire and original compositions everyone who attended an event had a real treat.

"I really enjoy the mix of pieces the band plays.  They are great fun" — Ensemble member

"Even though I can't play all the notes, I really enjoy the challenge of playing the group.  it really pushes me to become a better player" — Band member

Southampton Music Hub has four exciting — free — music opportunities to share with you as part of our Digital Native Artists (DNA) Programme!

1. Girls Make Music: Production Collective — a new, ten week, opportunity for girls aged 11–16 to explore music production, songwriting and live events

2. Music Production Collective — monthly music production group sessions providing space for collaboration between beatmakers, producers and songwriters aged 11-16

3. FLOW — Saturday rap group sessions for 11-16 year olds

4. Share and Shout About New Music — a chance for 13-25 year olds interested in music, social media, music journalism, blogging and live events to be part of a new team who will share new music and music opportunities with other young people

As part of our Digital Native Artists (DNA) programme, young people taking part in songwriting and production sessions have written some questions to ask members of the team. Next up, introducing Sara!

Sara (She/Her) joined Southampton Music Hub in February as our Youth Voice Engagement Worker for Southampton, as part of the South West Coastal Hub Alliance. Sara will be running an in person 10 week music production club for young women and girls. Find out more about the Girls Make Music: Production Club here.

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How did you get started in music and with writing music, and how did that get you here?

I started making music by writing rap lyrics when I was about 18, it wasn't until I was about 23 that I decided I needed to learn how to produce so I went back to college to get a diploma at DBS in Bristol and then onto get a degree in Music Production from BIMM London University. I then moved down to Southampton in February 2022 and was signed off for a year with anxiety, I slowly started volunteering and getting out there more over the year and I emailed the MAST Mayflower Studios to see if I could volunteer with them to get some experience working in the industry, and they said they had this position available and I should apply so I did and here we are! 

What genre(s) of music do you create?

It's kinda experimental trip hop sort of stuff, I take a lot of influence from Portishead and Massive Attack. I love the heavy drums they use and the eery melodies that accompany them. I'm a very positive, upbeat person most of the time but my music has a lot of darker undertones.

What instruments and tools are you using for recording?

So I mainly just program virtual instruments in logic or use samples, I don't really play any instruments and I've never got too into music theory to be honest. I also sometimes like to take a field recording of some environment or non musical sound and process and edit it in Logic into a form of music. 

Which other artists inspire you?

I accidently sort of already answered this question! But i'll expand a bit more, so trip hop, hiphop/rap and soul are my main influences but artists in any medium that are super authentic and original in their expression are really inspiring to me. I love people that aren't afraid to push boundaries or carve their own path.

What inspires you when you create music?

Everything and anything to be honest, it can be a feeling I have or a phrase that came to my head, it can be a passing strangers conversation or some experience I’ve had in my life. Literally anything.

What's the most important piece of advice you have for aspiring musicians?

Don't follow the crowd, be original, be unique, be bold and daring and don't be afraid to be the authentic truest version of yourself. Also be consistent, don't expect things to happen over night, good things take time and great things take even longer. Belive in yourself to the point of delusion and you'll succeed. 

Check out some of the tools in our ecosystem of music hub to find out more about making music your career.

Young people, aged 13-25: Southampton Music Hub needs you!

We’re launching a new way to SHARE AND SHOUT ABOUT MUSIC!

Created by young people, for young people, we want to share new music, music events, and support opportunities for young musicians in the area.

If you’re interested in… social media… music promotion… music journalism… blogging… live Events… then this opportunity could be for you!

Join us at our kickstarter day to form a brand new team, start a brand new project, and design the future:

Saturday 13 May 2023 • 10am-3pm

Music Studio @ MAST Mayflower Studios. SO14 7DU

Free lunch included!

Trouble with transport, or getting to the sessions? We can help. Just let us know when you sign up.

Any questions? Get in touch

Girls Make Music is a new club for girls and young women to explore music production, recording, songwriting and organising live events: a safe space to share ideas and interests whilst building skills, confidence, and collaborating with other young creatives!

This opportunity will be running for ten weeks and those taking part will be able to help design the opportunities that come next.

Sessions are free and all abilities are welcome. Girls can try out a session or come along regularly!

Age group: 11-16 years.

Wednesdays at 4.30 - 6.00pm

Mast Mayflower Studios

For all young people aged 11-16 interested in music production, there is also a monthly music production collective, open to all.

From jazz to Led Zeppelin, Holst to the stage and screen, and everything in-between this concert had it all! Saturday 11th March saw the SYCS Spring Spectacular take place at Thornden Hall. 

Clarinetist Katherine said 'We all relaxed into it and I really think we sound better when we work as a team like that. Mars was the most challenging, having to hit very high notes over a sustained period.

These sentiments were echoed by their conductor Kevin Withell. He said “Mars was absolutely fantastic to conduct but needed significant stamina from the orchestra to sustain all of the dramatic moments.”

This concert was Kevin's last as conductor of SYCS and the evening was a fitting send off with all involved in the orchestra eager to show their appreciation for all his hard work over the past eight and a half years. As Kevin himself said 'it's been a privilege to work with such a great team, and by that I mean a team of 80 young people and staff'.

Calling all Young People in Southampton: What does Southampton mean to you? (Southampton’s Image)

Southampton Youth Partnership is inviting young people aged 25 and under to provide us with images and words that say something about;

• What it is like being a young person in Southampton?

• What represents Southampton to you?

  This is an invitation for you to submit an image (drawn, painted, collaged, photographed or digitally created) or piece of poetry (written, spoken, rapped or sung). We particularly welcome responses from young people across the city who might have different perspectives that they would like to share or think that their views are often under-represented.

  Prizes – for the top 3 submissions that made us really think about what Southampton means to you (as judged by a panel of young people from the city) we will award a £25 ‘One 4 All’ gift voucher. Every submission will receive a participation thank you certificate.

• Closing date – March 21st 2023

• Submission – Email your work to syp@artswork.org.uk or post to Youth Options, Crescent House, The Crescent, Eastleigh SO50 9SX – use the title SYP Competition
  Please include your name, age and contact information with your submission.

• This information sheet is available in other accessible formats including large print and audio.

• Please email syp@artswork.or.uk for more details.

What is Southampton Youth Partnership?

Southampton Youth Partnership is network for organisations that work with children and young people in the city of Southampton. Together we aim to ensure that we all work together to create a connected city with good opportunities that reach and impact on the lives of children and young people so that they are happy, thriving and empowered.

The role of Southampton Youth Partnership is to

• Ensure youth voice is at the heart of our work together

• Share, learn and proactively using what we know together to make children and young

• people’s lives better

• Advocate for sustainable of provision – securing investment and support for partners

• Create a connected city which works for young people with ‘No wrong door’ between

• partners

Southampton Music Hub Award Holders and players from Southampton Youth Concert Sinfonia and Southampton Youth Orchestra were delighted to perform during the drinks reception prior to the Lord Mayor's Ball on Friday 10 February.

Aged 9 to 17, the young musicians performed to incredibly high standards whilst the Lord Mayor received her guests.  Performing a range of music from Chopin to Jazz the young performers were accompanied by hub manager Kath Page.  

"It was such a privilege for our young players to be invited to perform at such a prestigious event.  The young musicians performed magnificently and the event gave them a very valuable experience of performing in a different environment to what they we are used to.  It was an amazing opportunity for Southampton's musicians to share their talent." — Zoe Hunting, Music Services Manager

Southampton Secondary Schools were invited by Southampton Music Hub to programme a whole evening of performances by their pupils in Studio 1 at MAST Mayflower Studios.  Over 100 pupils from 6 schools across the city and city wide ensembles put together a memorable evening of music with a huge range of repertoire and instrumental line ups.  From Rock Bands, Jazz Groups, Clarinet ensembles and soloists with their own original material it really was clear how incredibly talented the city’s young musicians are.

Hosted by Musician, poet and performer Ricky Tart hosted the event which was enthusiastically attended by the Lord Mayor and local councillors along with parents, friends and family with fantastic support from music hub partners MAST Mayflower Studios.  

“It is such a great experience for the students to perform in the venue and also to see what other students of their age are working on.” Gemma Dyne, Head of Music Cantell School

“Thank you so much for organising such a lovely event, it was such good fun for us and the students!” Jorge May, Head of Music St George’s Catholic College

Nia Collins, Southampton Music Hub Programmes and Events Manager, says:

“It has been a privilege to have been able to provide a literal platform for these young people to have the experience of playing and performing on a professional stage such as this one.  I was blown away by the standard of playing and performance across the evening and the audience and the students were so polite, positive and supportive of each other throughout which was so lovely to see.”

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The string groups and orchestras annual Pyramid Concert took part on 28 January in partnership with the Friends of Southampton Youth Orchestra. For many of Southampton's young musicians and their families this is the highlight of the year where younger players are inspired by the more senior players and the more advanced players can reflect on the musical journey they have been on over the years. As always the standard of playing was incredibly high from all groups with a huge variety of music being played from a Midnight Feast through to a Slavonic Dance.

"The Pyramid Concert is always such an inspirational concert for all players and is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the musical achievements of Southampton's young musicians" — Zoe Hunting, Ensemble Manager

Below is a review from Zoe Williamson. a member of Elgar Strings:

The Pyramid concert is one of the biggest concerts of the year for all the Southampton Music hub orchestras. It is when all the youth orchestras (Acorn, Elgar, SYS, SYSC, SYO) play. We all love this concert (even the conductors), it just creates the most surreal atmosphere for the players. This year we all enjoyed playing our pieces. Every orchestra's performance was great.

Acorn, the youngest orchestra with some of the musicians that have been played for less than a year, played a piece called Midnight feast. It was funny and enjoyable because it contained a mix of singing and playing. Also, their leader George was amazing.

Elgar's memorable moment in this concert was their piece Nightrider, the group's favourite. It was very exciting and thrilling to play and listen too. The piece had the smaller children work hard and we all knew they practised a lot in rehearsals. There co-leaders Lucas and Lucy made sure everyone stayed in time. Even Kevin said " it was the best Elgar had played in seven years"

Next was SYS with their leaders Shin and Enuya. They played the 4 movements from Sunny Strings. They were jolly, mood lifting, bright and light. The bass line was well supported by the cellos and the double basses.

After the interval, SYCS played 2 pieces: one of them was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. They really created the atmosphere of the story with audience interaction. It was gripping and made us sit on the edge of our seats. We think the conductor, Anna Robinson, really wanted to connect with the audience. She also showed the audience that she does not always need to conduct because the orchestra was following their leader, Samuel.

To finish off the concert, SYO played the Overture to Orpheus in The Underworld

which is a piece everyone knows because it is also known as the French Cancan. It was magnificent and powerful the way they played it. It also made us dance our way off to collect our instruments

This concert is very inspirational for the audience and the younger players to see what they could achieve as a musician. Hopefully it also inspires more children to play instruments.

The Rap and Literacy (Co-designing a Creative Curriculum) project was initiated by Southampton Music Hub, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and worked with art-based practitioner (Rob Bradley) as well as three Southampton Schools (Bassett Green Primary School, St Monica Junior School and Weston Park Primary School) between May 2021 and December 2022.

Through a process of co-construction, a year’s long programme of music and literacy was designed and delivered from September 2021 to July 2022, including workshops, class-based lessons, and performances. The programme worked with 270 pupils, nine class-based teachers, one music hub curriculum specialist, and rap performer Rob Bradley. In addition to those taking part in the core programme activity, performances reached an audience of over 200 parents and family members.

Following the completion of the project, a documentary film and evaluation report is being released following a shared learning and celebration event in January which was attended by the organisations who took part, as well as regional education and cultural partners, and Arts Council England.

Find out more about the Action Research of Southampton Music Hub

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Photographs thanks to City Eye.

Local hip hop artists came together to lay out an history of hip hop in an interactive schools concert at MAST Mayflower Theatre on 17th January to an audience of 300 primary and secondary age students.  

Vocalist ShannonB, Rapper & Freestyler TenChoo, Producer Karan Master, DJ SteveO and musician Jono laid out the foundations of Hip Hop from it’s roots in Jamaican Toasting right up to Trap, Drill and Road Rap in the present day.  

Through interactive songs, live performances and a memorable freestyle the audience learned about DJing, sampling, mixing, live track creation and heard live versions of songs by Stormzy, Craig David, Lauren Hill and even a local young rapper Tommy who gave his first ever live performance.

Year 5 Teacher:

“The local artists really made it a special experience for the children involved and they were absolutely buzzing about it afterwards.  We have never been to a schools' event quite like it before!”

Teacher from St Deny’s Primary:

“Thank you for the awesome hip hop workshop at MAST this morning.  Pure class - informative, entertaining, engaging, inspiring.  My class from St Denys loved it and so did I, we were all buzzing all afternoon.”

Nia Collins:

“We are so lucky in Southampton to have such a wealth of homegrown talent in the UK’s hip hop scene and to be able to link those artists and industry professionals up with schools has been brilliant.  Redbridge Secondary students were particularly excited to see ShannonB, who until not long ago was a student there herself for example!  Then to also be able to give an opportunity to Tommy to start his journey following in their footsteps too was great”

Southampton Music Hub ensemble Southampton Youth Wind Band performed a very special family concert for children aged 2 and up and their parents at MAST Mayflower Theatre on 17th January.  The band under their conductor John Hanchett performed fantastic space and time travel themed music including the theme from Doctor Who and Star Wars.

During this interactive concert, presented by Kath Page and Nia Collins, children and their families learned about; instruments in the orchestra, musical words, how to keep the pulse, how to conduct and created exciting body percussion rhythms to go with the music.  This relaxed and educational concert allowed everyone in the audience to join in and move with the music.

The following morning this concert was then replicated for 350 school children from Year R, Year 1 and Year 2 from across the city.  

John Hanchett Conductor:

“Wonderful to see, hear and feel the joy from the children watching”

Year 2 Teacher:

“I just wanted to say how amazing it was.  We were blown away.  You all did such a great job, thank you!”

Nia Collins:

“Alongside the enjoyment and educational nature of this experience, it’s so special for younger children to see the older children playing in one of our top tier ensembles.  Hopefully this will inspire them to play an instrument the future too.”

As part of our Digital Native Artists (DNA) programme, young people taking part in songwriting and production sessions have written some questions to ask members of the team. Next up, introducing JT.

JT (He/Him) has been working with Southampton Music Hub since December 2021. JT works mostly in person in Southampton using his skills as a rapper, drummer, and beatboxer to support young people in learning and developing their own music.

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How did you get started in music and with writing music, and how did that get you here?

I started playing drums in Year 8 of school, then started rapping in Year 9!

What genre(s) of music do you create?

Rap, Hip Hop, Drill and more!

What instruments and tools are you using for recording?

Vocals, Logic Pro X, GarageBand, Drums and more!

Which other artists inspire you?

J Cole, Central Cee, Ard Adz, Lauryn Hill - the list goes on!

What inspires you when you create music?

The energy around me and how reflective I'm feeling, as most of my music is created around my emotions!

What's the most important piece of advice you have for aspiring musicians?

First off - just enjoy creating music! Keep trying, even if you fail! The music industry can be hard to break and requires a lot of time, energy and passion!

Check out some of the tools in our ecosystem of music hub to find out more about making music your career.

As 2022 comes to an end, we’re highlighting some of the most memorable moments from the year:

Earlier in the year

Southampton Music Hub ensembles and choirs have been busy performing over the last few weeks.  Performances have taken place across a wide range of venues in Southampton, Hedge End and Chandlers Ford and have been attended friends and family as well as an increasing number of members of the general public.  

"The end of the autumn term is always an exciting time for our groups as they give their first performances of the academic year and get everyone in the mood for the upcoming Festive season.  My huge congratulations goes out to all our young performers and their directors and assistant directors on all of their achievements this term"  Zoe Hunting, Southampton Music Hub Ensemble Manager

The standard of playing has been incredibly high as always, with great commitment, enjoyment and enthusiasm being shown throughout.  This energy and commitment to music making comes through clearly in the thoughts of some of our players:

"The concert was an incredible experience, the repertoire was very fun to play and being on stage with such a talented orchestra was a delight! I am proud of being part of SYCS and really looking forward to future concerts." SYCS member - Violin

'I was really excited and full of adrenalin for my first sycs concert. It lived up to my expectations and more! The concert had a mix of great humour and fantastic music. I'm really looking forward to my tour experience in Feb 2023 to the Midlands.' — SYCS member - clarinet 

Staff are equally proud of the achievements of all the young performers:

'I am extremely proud of the orchestra's achievements this term. They have worked incredibly hard which showed in a programme which truly reflected the SYCS-MAS spirit! This makes me extremely excited for the rest of the season and what the orchestra will deliver next!' Anna Robinson- Director of SYCS 

"On 21st November Acorn musicians did themselves proud in what was, for most of them, their first ever live concert. The ensemble performed a selection of easy pieces highlighting their new skills in playing together and following a conductor. The concert also provided the opportunity for nine of the ensemble to perform a solo piece to their parents and peers. " Chris Nichols - Director, Acorn Strings

On Friday 2 December 2022 two rappers from Bassett Green release their debut tracks, recorded at MAST Music Studio.

The first track, from Nathaniel, is called ‘Life is a Blessing’ and is about “inspiring people to keep trying hard, and to not give up on their dreams, no matter what happens to them.”

The second track, from Mckinley, is called ‘Took Me All These Years’ and is about “the past, and no matter what happens, to keep on trying”.

Nathaniel and Mckinley first took part in rap sessions at their school thanks to the Rap and Literacy Project, funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation. They have come to the MAST Music Studio as part of the DNA Programme which supports young musicians working in digital music genres.