IPIA 2024: Meet the speakers

Amber Boudi is a Bristol Based, neurodivergent singer, songwriter and sound artist. Amber explores both instrumental and organic sounds as well as electronic voicings/samples to tell stories that help people to connect, heal & claim space. She was commissioned by BBC Arts to produce “We Are The Sky” which follows a real conversation between Amber and her mum following the rise in media coverage of the #MeToo Movement. Emotion, honesty & vulnerability are always at the core of her work, exploring experiences of trauma, childhood and mental health. She was recently one of four artists in the City of Beacons cohort with Bristol Beacon, leading on community projects on the theme ‘Light’. She produced the song “We Glow” co-written and performed by women and non-binary people with hidden disabilties. She is now working on her debut solo release heavily influenced by neo soul, r&b and jazz.

Andrew Lansley has worked for almost 30 years in cross sector roles including culture, events, academia, politics, broadcast and innovation. Leading on research and project delivery within creative ecosystems, event sustainability & accessibility policy, he now runs a neurodivergent consultancy that specialises in intersectional, regenerative projects around the UK and beyond. He is autistic and has performed as double bassist in Thrill Collins for the past 15 years.

www.andrewlansley.org

Banji is a 23 year old Multipotentialite creative from London with autism. Banji juggles roles as a rap artist, producer, content creator and semi pro football player. Born in Blythe, California and raised in Vienna, Austria, Banji moved to London in 2005 where he got diagnosed with Autism. Since 2019 he has been producing music, and started his journey as an independent artist in 2023, which was the same year he dropped his debut EP, supported by Wired4Music’s Generate fund.

@banji.conwayjr

Having joined the National Orchestra for All as a trumpeter from Durham in 2013, Beth has progressed through Orchestras for All as an Ambassador, Youth Board chair, Trustee and now Co-Chair. She is passionate about youth leadership and believes it is crucial to the future of music education.

Embodying a pure and empowering energy, Pop/R&B artist Diamantina is on a mission to heal and uplift hearts with each listener. Born in Germany with Albanian roots, Diamantina moved to London at the age of two moving around the capital city. Diamantina’s songs delve into intimate themes of her journey to self-love and mental health from a vulnerable and courageous heart. She draws inspiration from powerhouses such as JoJo, India Arie, Tori Kelly and Jessie J.

Career highlights are punctuated with having radio support from BBC 1Xtra’s DJ Ace and DJ Target, Spotify Editorial ‘Fresh Finds Pop’ playlist, airplay in Topshop & Nike Town and a performance abroad on Albania’s Top Channel in 2020.

@officialdiamantina

Eleanor Rashid, known professionally as El Rashid, is a British-Pakistani singer/songwriter and freelance music practitioner based in London. With a First-Class Honors degree in Music from Goldsmiths, University of London, her diverse musical background spans a western and eastern classical music, jazz, and experimental electronic sounds. In 2023, her debut single ‘Fall,’ a collaboration with Pakistani artist Natasha Humera Ejaz under Tiny Dancer Live, gained widespread acclaim, featured on Spotify’s ‘New Music Friday’ playlists and BBC Introducing. Her latest release, ‘Trapped,’ also received praise from BBC, with Dean Jackson highlighting her unique sound. Beyond her own music making career, Eleanor is an advocate for Early Years music education and considers her outreach work to be the most important string to her bow as an artist. She has contributed to outreach projects for organizations like Creative Futures, Wigmore Hall, Roundhouse and Girls Rock London since 2018. As member of APME (Association for Popular Music Education) since 2020, she was featured in Gareth Dylan Smith’s book on popular music education and has championed diversity and inclusion through her workshops and reviews for Music Teacher Magazine. Additionally, Eleanor co-hosts the podcast ‘On Repeat,’ exploring genre hierarchies and bridging her research on popular music in early years education with Creative Futures. She brings her work in popular music and diversity and inclusion together with Nadia Javed.

Esther “Estée Blu ” Lenda Bokuma is an R&B-Jazz Artist, Writer, Music Executive and Founder of BLU WAV Artist Wellbeing from London, UK.

Since launching her career as an Independent Artist in 2015, she’s been supported by Help Musicians, AfroPunk, COLORS, the MOBO Awards, NME and Camden Roundhouse.

She has been involved in Wired4Music since 2017, co-producing and hosting various events for young musicians and music professionals. Estée has a background as a qualified French Teacher and currently has over 8 years of experience working across the music industry as an Artist, educator and music professional, with key skills across artist development, facilitation, consulting, major label brand partnerships and indie label operations. She also has several features in publications such as Music Business Worldwide, PRS Magazine, Music Week and MixMag.

Estée sits on various executive boards including Sound Connections, The F-List and The Richard Antwi Scholarship promoting equality. In 2022, Women In Music 2022 Roll Of Honour inductee Christine Osazuwa nominated her as a Music Week Rising Star, due to her activism. In November 2023, she completed a 6-month fellowship with the Creative Impact Research Centre Europe based in Berlin, and published a report about the mental health, wellbeing and working conditions of Black Artists in Britain.

beside the pool is a multi-medium artist whose holistic vision extends beyond music, encompassing visual world-building and creative direction. Blending the sounds of alt-pop, indietronica, pop, and dance music, he launched his career by performing at some of Lithuania’s biggest festivals and headlining his own shows at just 18. He has supported James Carter and NOISY in London post-Covid, as well as played at HMV and Beavertown, and is currently preparing for his debut at The Great Escape 2024.

beside the pool is set to relaunch with a two-part, 13-track record ‘places we called home’. This audio-visual project serves as an invitation to explore escapism, even if it’s temporary and blind: a journey of negligence of your own self that slowly transforms into an ease that comes with loving self-awareness rather than a shameful one. From a humble beach town to major festivals, his work aims to create a safe space and a platform for all the kids out there who feel like they don’t fit in.

www.besidethepool.co.uk

karmokar is a 23-year-old singer-songwriter, rapper, producer, engineer and overall creative from London. He graduated from the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) studying Creative Artistry in 2023, has been a Wired4Music member since 2018, and he is passionate about creating a positive change in the world through his art.

@karm0kar
intern@sound-connections.org.uk

Katie is a youth worker and Trustee for Pie Factory Music, a music and youth work charity based in Ramsgate, East Kent. Katie has been actively engaged with the charity for over 15 years, as a participant, youth volunteer, staff member and now as a Trustee, alongside studying for a degree in Biology. Katie is passionate about enabling youth involvement in decision-making processes and governance, and ensuring that young people have a space to call their own.

Milli-Rose is a musician and writer. Using her personal experiences, she writes and performs material around topics including mental health, the housing crisis in the UK, and how creativity has become a form of therapy throughout uncertain chapters and times. As well as previously working for Roundhouse, and being a part of Sound Connections work both as a young Trustee and through Wired4Music, she is the founder of CrossWord Lyric, a monthly night of music and poetry.

Milli-Rose works towards providing a platform for emerging artists, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility where she can, while working on her own creative ventures.

@milli.rose
@crossword_lyric

Nadia Javed, is a British Muslim of Indian/Pakistani heritage, a punk musician, actor, activist, and writer from Hayes, Middlesex. Notable as the frontwoman of the feminist band The Tuts. She toured with Kate Nash, The Selecter, The Specials and performed at Glastonbury’s leftfield stage. Her music been featured on BBC 6 Music, Radio 1 and Radio 1X.

Nancy Hitzig is known for working with small to mid-sized charities to plan and implement fundraising strategies and help creatives to successfully generate income from a wide range of sources.

Natestapes is a 26 year old independent singer/rapper/songwriter/producer. He has been rapping since the age of 15, and has been releasing music for the past six years on all digital platforms. His main focus is rapping, and he prides himself in making lyrical and storytelling songs so as to make his listeners reflect on life around them and how they fit into it. His biggest source of inspiration is the late Mac Miller, a true musician through and through. A lot of his ideologies and rap styles can be found in Nate’s early work.

Nate has independently released over 70 songs, including one mixtape and three E.P.’s. He records, mixes and master’s all of his own songs in his home studio. Natestapes is a born performer, and has performed at numerous venues across London in the past four years.

Starting out at 16 years old, Parris OH is a music executive with 15+ years of industry experience. Currently the Artist Partnerships Manager at TikTok, connecting and looking after artists and opportunities for them on the leading entertainment platform. Parris navigated their way through the industry both independently and working for major companies such as RCA Records, Columbia Records, Sony Music UK, Abbey Road Studios and Wired PR. With the epicentre of what they do being explained as “completely artist focused and led”, Parris has been an integral part of global artist campaigns and representing, curating and nurturing UK Black talent, spanning artists to execs.

Philip Flood has been at Sound Connections since 2010 and is responsible for the overall strategy and governance of the charity. Previously, he was Head of LSO Discovery and prior to this, Education Director for Spitalfields Music and Head of Music and Media at a large inner-London FE college. He is an advisor for the PRS for Music Foundation, sits on the boards of a number of Music Education Hubs, and a Non-Executive Director of PMLL, which is part of the MPA Group.

Ra’eesah is a performer, producer and facilitator who uses the mediums of theatre, film, music and spoken word to tell stories, bring people together, and effect positive change. She is a recipient of Wired4Music’s Generate Fund for her project The Self-Expression Sessions, a series of spoken word workshops that are currently running.

Ra’eesah currently sits on the Board of Trustees at both Roundhouse and the newly built WEST Youth Zone (OnSide), a natural progression from partaking in youth advisory and advocacy across multiple arts and culture organisations in London and beyond. Her main aim is to ensure that young people are being heard, and considered, at the top level of charitable organisations, particularly those that directly impact young people.

@ra.eesahh

Shakira Alleyne is a writer and musician from London. Guided by an experimental ethos, her focus as an artist is to reconnect people with raw emotions and encourage critical questioning. Shakira has been involved in various grassroots projects including her Roundhouse residency and Brownswood’s talent initiative Future Bubblers. She has also worked with an array of prestigious brands such as Fred Perry, Universal and Vacheron Constantin. Making music has been a powerful outlet for Shakira over the years and this fuels her passion for creating exciting and inclusive musical opportunities for all.

Tee Peters is a vocalist, music producer, and Programme Producer at Sound Connections, developing webinars and producing events and opportunities for Wired4Music. After dedicating his entire young adulthood to figuring out how to cut out distractions and focus purely on finding purpose through his work, Tee Peters has curated himself a career that is fully music-based, motivational, and aspirational. He has headlined and performed at the Royal Albert Halls Great Exhibition Road Festival, played at festivals across the UK and Germany, and reached over 70,000 monthly listeners on streaming platforms, all while balancing his work with young people at Sound Connections.

Recent singles ‘Seasons’ & ‘Numeracy’ premiered on BBC Introducing as Track of The Week and has since been featured on Spotify’s ‘Conscious’, ‘Dazed’ and ‘Free Form’ official playlists. To follow this up, Tee performed for the Mayor of London and has teamed up with brands such as O2, DICE, War Child, Nandos and Rough Trade.

Yasmine is a spoken word poet and playwright born and based in South-West London, passionate about sharing stories centring joy, lyricism, and nostalgia from a Black and working-class lens. She has performed at the Roundhouse and the Royal Court Theatre and an extract of her audio play ‘I used to know H.I.M’ was featured on BBC Radio London to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Hip-Hop. Yasmine initially worked with Sound Connections as part of the Workforce Development Programme in 2022 and is also a Wired4Music member.

Zoë Carassik is CEO of Pie Factory Music, a music and youth work charity based in a busy youth centre in Ramsgate, East Kent. With a background in community music engagement and music education, Zoë’s work has predominantly focused on supporting social justice causes and has taken her from immigration removal centres, women’s refuges and community centres to world-class cultural institutions and strategic charitable organisations. Zoë is a passionate advocate for young people’s rights, ensuring young people are front and centre of the cultural regeneration of Thanet and other areas of high deprivation.