We are looking for a Contemporary Music Programmer to join our Arts Programming team on permanent, full-time basis.
About the role and the team:
The Contemporary Music team curates approximately 150+ contemporary music events a year across a broad musical landscape, including contemporary classical. These events are a mixture of our own promotions – including the iconic annual Meltdown Festival – and incoming hires. The role works with the Head of Contemporary Music, Programming Assistant (Contemporary Music), Event Managers, Producers, Press and Marketing Managers.
Role Objectives:
- Work with and support the Head of Contemporary Music to programme and deliver leading contemporary music across Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and other performance spaces.
- Diligently manage day-to-day gig programming and delivery, ensuring that the vision for individual events is communicated internally to enable the efficient and effective delivery of all events.
- Develop relationships and partnerships with internal stakeholders and external promoters, agents, artists and collectives in order to develop new projects and identify new opportunities for Southbank Centre.
- Budget and programme commercially viable outstanding live music projects, ensuring innovation, inclusivity, diversity, and high artistic quality, to reach the widest possible audience and meet ambitions of the programme.
Main Responsibilities:
Programme Delivery (50%)
- Seek out emerging trends in music and create opportunities for their development and performance at Southbank Centre, including sharing relevant enquiries with the Head of Contemporary Music.
- Develop the quality and breadth of own-promotions and co-promotions, including identifying artists and promoters for gigs likely to have strong return on investment, pitching these ideas to the Head of Contemporary Music.
- Create budgets and financial projections for new projects, gigs and other own-promotions and present these to the Head of Contemporary Music.
- Liaise with Southbank Centre Production, Ticketing, Operations, Health & Safety and Visitor Experience teams, to assess practical delivery of all projects.
- Supervise the development of Future Tense, supporting the Contemporary Music Assistant to deliver the programme.
- Secure and manage exciting promoter hires, ensuring good flow of communication and providing information on our processes.
Financial and operational (30%)
- Working with the Contemporary Music Assistant to produce contracts and deal memos. Supporting them to ensure information is recorded on Artifax, Tessitura and any other appropriate Southbank Centre operated systems.
- Ensure programmed activity is produced within pre-agreed budgets and available staffing levels in conjunction with the Event Managers and Producers.
- Monitor and track expenditure within the Contemporary Music cost centre; to be responsible for meeting agreed financial targets, reporting personally on a monthly basis to Finance with the Head of Contemporary Music.
Relationship management (10%)
- Attend regular programme, project and festival planning meetings. As well as Marketing and Communications meetings to discuss and review the promotional strategy for the Contemporary Music programme.
- Work collaboratively to explore ideas and commercial opportunities in order to maximise income.
General (10%)
- In cooperation with all other staff, provide an efficient and welcoming service to the public, artists and promoters using Southbank Centre.
- To carry out any reasonable tasks as requested by the Head of Contemporary Music.
- This role requires flexibility to work during evenings and weekends to attend events.
Person Specification
Key skills:
- A track record of programming or curating innovative and wide-ranging contemporary music for a venue, music platform, festival, promoter, radio station or equivalent experience
- Expert and wide ranging knowledge of current music scenes and genres
- Specialist knowledge in one or more of the following genres: Amapiano, Afrobeats, Bhangra, Drill, Grime, K-pop, Left-Field Electronic, Reggae, Reggaeton, UK R&B or any other genres underrepresented within Southbank Centre’s programming and reflective of London’s communities
- A commercially minded approach to creatively programming live music
- Ability to understand and support the development needs of music artists, collectives, independent promoters and music scenes
- Demonstrable financial planning and budgeting skills
- Strong connections within UK music industry
- Demonstrable interpersonal skills and the ability to build and maintain good working relationships with a wide range of people, both internally and externally at all levels
- Demonstrable written and verbal communication skills
- Experience of creating, managing and monitoring project budgets
- Understanding of venue operations, ticket pricing and structures
- Demonstrable administration skills and ability to keep track of a high volume of detailed information and manage documentation appropriately
- The ability to work as part of a team and collaborate
- Tact, diplomacy and the ability to remain calm, demonstrating resilience under pressure
- Ability to handle highly sensitive and confidential information
- Is able to demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to the role that diversity and inclusion play in the activities of the Southbank Centre as a whole and in the work of this particular job.
If you feel that your skills and experience do not fully meet the criteria as listed in the Job Description but that you have other relevant skills and experience that would support you in this role, please do apply and note these in your application.
