CoDI Pulse: Voice and Percussion

Calling music-creators of any genre for this creative development opportunity to compose for voice with percussion.

This artist development pathway offers five Wales-based music-creators the opportunity to explore and develop creative approaches to composing for voice and percussion (a combination of tuned and untuned instruments), through a series of workshops with vocalist Emily Thorner, percussionist Julian Warburton, and composer-mentor Claire Victoria Roberts.

Through studio sessions, mentoring, and collaboration with the performers, the selected artists will explore experimental approaches to composing for, creating ambitious new work that reflects and expands on their own musical language and creative practice.

We welcome applications from artists working in Welsh or English, and from every musical genre. This pathway involves creating performance materials for the performers, and applications are welcomed from music-creators who use standard notation, as well as those whose practice involves graphic, visual, experimental or other non-classical approaches to communicating musical ideas, including work rooted in oral traditions and improvisation.

If you feel your music and creative practice would benefit from this opportunity to develop new work within a supportive cohort of artists, we’d love to hear from you.

ABOUT THE PATHWAY

Participants will be encouraged to develop a single piece across the programme, exploring and refining new ideas at each in-person workshop with Emily Thorner, Julian Warburton, and Claire Victoria Roberts.

These studio workshops are designed as supportive, collaborative spaces where artists can experiment, test ideas, and receive feedback from the performers, mentors, and fellow cohort members. Each participant will have dedicated time to work directly with the lead artists on their piece, while also learning through observing and discussing the development of others’ work.

Through all of our CoDI programmes, we hope to create welcoming spaces to take risks in your compositions: to challenge yourself, experiment, and expand your music in new (and sometimes unfamiliar!) directions.

Between workshops, participating music-creators will continue developing their pieces independently, supported through one-to-one sessions with a composer-mentor and the Tŷ Cerdd | Music Wales team. This support may include creative guidance, technical advice, and notation proofreading where needed.

When applying, please consider the time commitment involved in developing your work between workshops. Score deadlines will fall in advance of each session to allow performers adequate preparation time.

OPEN TO ALL GENRES

The CoDI pathways are open to artists working in any musical genre. Whether your practice is rooted in folk, classical, jazz, pop, electronic, hip hop, experimental, or something in between, we welcome applications from musicians who are ready to develop their creative practice and learn alongside others.

DATES

The workshop dates are:

Tŷ Cerdd Studio, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff (in-person)

10:00-17:30 approx.

28 September: Workshop #1

4 November: Workshop #2

4 December: Workshop #3

2 February: Workshop #4

22 March: Final sharing (recorded session)

1-1 mentoring sessions will be offered between workshops, to be arranged at a mutually convenient time between the participant and the mentor / Tŷ Cerdd staff member.

FEES AND EXPENSES

Each participating composer will receive a payment of £1000 (in addition to expenses for travel within Wales, and accommodation where necessary).

WHO ARE WE?

Tŷ Cerdd – Music Wales is committed to supporting and developing new music from Wales of all genres. Artists taking part in our pathways come from every genre and musical background, with or without formal training. Our CoDI 2026-27 programme celebrates experimentation, encouraging the creation of ambitious, original music made in Wales.

Claire Victoria Roberts is a composer and performer, blurring the boundaries of jazz, classical and folk genres. Her work has been performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Psappha Ensemble, cellist Oliver Coates, Opra Cymru, Uproar Ensemble, Solem Quartet, National Youth Choir, National Youth folk ensemble and Carice Singers. She has collaborated as a composer and performer with Camden Symphony Orchestra, Sherman Theatre, New Voices choir, Morley Arts Festival, Aberystwyth Arts Festival. As a composer, she has been commissioned by Cheltenham Festival, Presteigne Festival, MusicFest, and the Wigmore Hall. In 2024, she created an animated opera for Sinfonia Cymru and Music Theatre Wales, alongside animation company Picl. The work was longlisted for a Sky Arts award, and won Best Welsh Performance film at Focus film festival.

Claire won the Welsh Music Guild's Young Composer award in 2022, was awarded a Jerwood Arts composer award in 2021, a Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize 2019-2020, 2017 Mathias Composition prize, and 2019 a Francis Chagrin award. She has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Radio Wales and Radio Cymru. As a violinist, vocalist and improviser, she was a part of Serious Music EFG London Jazz fest's Take Five artist development scheme, and performed her own music at Glasgow Jazz, Manchester Jazz and the London Jazz Showcase at the Royal Albert Hall. She was funded by Help Musicians UK to create an album of her jazz and classical songs with orchestra in 2022, and in 2025 toured with Poesis, a free jazz project curated for Llais Festival at the Wales Millennium Centre and the Barbican in London. Claire continues to perform her unique arrangements of traditional Welsh songs, in the UK and abroad, including festival Artefacto in Logroño, and at the Aras Chronain centre in Dublin.

Emily Thorner, (“Ultrasoprano”) is an internationally acclaimed vocalist celebrated for her extraordinary four-octave range and cinematic voice. Spanning film music, musical theatre, opera and symphonic crossover, she has performed worldwide as a featured soloist. Emily regularly collaborates on orchestral film-music projects and contemporary opera, and will premiere the role of Greta Thunberg at the 2026 Grimeborn Opera Festival. Through performance, Emily explores the human voice as an instrument of presence, expression, and transformation.

Julian Warburton is an internationally acclaimed percussionist, conductor and educator, renowned for his work in late 20th- and 21st-century music. Celebrated for his versatility, virtuosity and clarity of interpretation, he has performed worldwide as a soloist with leading ensembles and orchestras, including the world premiere of Mark Bowden’s Heartland with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. A long-standing principal player with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Julian has collaborated closely with composers including Thomas Adès, Harrison Birtwistle and Oliver Knussen, appearing on several acclaimed recordings. He is Professor of Percussion and Director of Ensemble at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

ELIGIBILITY

'Welsh music-creators': If you were born in Wales or have been based in Wales for at least a year, and you’re creating original music, you’re eligible.
This pathway involves creating or notating scores. Applications are welcomed from music-creators whose practices do not include standard music notation (e.g. visual/graphic/experimental scores) as well as from artists who notate.
You must be available to commit to the pathway’s planned dates (in person).
When applying, please also consider the time commitment involved in developing your work between workshops. Score deadlines will fall in advance of each session to allow performers adequate preparation time.

Travel expenses are available for journeys within Wales only.

We particularly encourage applications from artists who:

have faced socio-economic and/or systemic barriers to opportunities to develop their practice or music in the past
identify as disabled and/or neurodivergent
are Black, Asian or from the global majority
identify as LGBTQIA+
are working-class.

If you’re interested, but you have some questions…

…we can chat with you directly by phone or Zoom. Email or call to arrange a chat.

freya.dooley@tycerdd.org

HOW TO APPLY

Upload the following information to our online PORTAL

1. Personal details: your name, preferred pronouns, email address, mobile number, address, plus confirmation that you are over 18.

2. Tell us about your practice (Max. 200 words): Tell us what you love to do as an artist/music-creator and what you’ve been most proud of. As part of your answer, please tell us whether you use musical notation, and how you make your work.

3. Why would you like to be part of this pathway? (Max. 400 words) Please tell us about:

The nature of what you’d like to learn through this pathway, and how you hope it might impact your work

Your interest in composing for percussion

Your interest in and approach to the voice

How working in a cohort of artists will benefit you

4. Examples of your work: please include links to two pieces of your music (NB: please send links rather than sound or video files; if you need help creating links, contact enquiries@tycerdd.org.) Please choose examples that best reflect your music now and/or are relevant to your approach to this opportunity.

5. Do you have any access requirements or other information that you would like to share with us?

At Tŷ Cerdd, we follow the social model of disability – recognising that barriers exist in environments, and societal structures, not in people themselves. We invite you to share details of any support you may need to enable you to participate in this pathway, but this is entirely optional at this stage of your application. You will also be invited to share and discuss your access riders and requirements with us at any point in the project should you be offered a place on the programme.

Any access information provided to us at this stage will not be shared with the panel unless you request for it to be included as part of your application (please note this below).

ALTERNATIVE APPLICATION FORMATS

Applications are also welcomed in audio or video format.

Record your answers to questions 2 & 3 above (up to 4 minutes’ duration), and upload a link to your recording, adding the information requested in questions 1, 4 & 5 to the upload form.

If you need help creating or sharing a recording, please contact freya.dooley@tycerdd.org or enquiries@tycerdd.org

CRITERIA

The panel will assess applications based on the following criteria:

The extent to which the applicant shows a strong and relevant creative approach to the pathway.
NB This does not mean you need to apply with a fixed project idea; rather that you show the panel how this opportunity is relevant to your creative approach and the direction of your work

The extent to which the applicant shows they/their music will benefit from this pathway at this time

The extent to which the applicant demonstrates how they will benefit from the mentoring and cohort aspects of this pathway

The originality and potential of the music examples provided

TIMELINE & PROCESS

Deadline for applications: Monday 17 August, 10am
Decision communicated to applicants: on or before Friday 28 August.

The panel will consist of Deborah Keyser and Freya Dooley (both of Tŷ Cerdd) and Claire Victoria Roberts (composer-mentor).

Feedback will be offered.

If you’re interested, but you have some questions…

…we can chat with you directly by phone or Zoom.

Email freya.dooley@tycerdd.org or enquiries@tycerdd.org to arrange a call. We want to remove as many barriers as we can – so if there’s anything you’d like to talk to us about, let us know and we will try to help to find a solution.