Sound Connections announces the appointment of the charity’s first Co-Directors, Liz Coomb and Wizdom Layne!

The Trustees of Sound Connections are thrilled to announce the appointment of Liz Coomb and Wizdom Layne as the first Co-Directors of the charity. This follows Philip Flood’s decision to step down after 14 years as Director to focus on freelance consultancy.

Both Philip and Sound Connections’ Chair, Norton York, have been transition planning for the last 12 months, with the trustees considering several succession options. The Sound Connections team has also been exploring ways of sharing leadership and decision-making within the charity, both internally and externally, in order to better align with the organisation’s evolving needs and ambitions. This includes moving away from a traditional, hierarchical management model towards a flatter, more equitable structure with young people taking on leadership roles in the work that we do, as well as working with specialist consultants, and arts and cultural organisations across the UK to platform marginalised voices.

Over the next three months, Philip will be working closely with Liz, Wizdom, and the rest of the team to ensure a smooth transition, and that partners, funders and other supporters are kept abreast of developments.

About our new Co-Directors

Liz Coomb (she/her)

Liz has worked in the music education sector for over 15 years, and her approach is rooted in developing and delivering impactful, needs-based, children and young person-centred programmes across the country. She has worked in several delivery and senior management roles including as Project Manager for Newham Music Hub, Head of Programmes at national youth music organisation, Music for Youth, and most recently as Managing Director (maternity cover) at Drum Works.

She joined Sound Connections in 2020 to oversee Wired4Music and our youth voice and participation work, before moving over to managing our sector support strand and consultancy service.

For our sector support work, Liz develops and delivers training and resources on youth voice and participation, leads on our Activate investment programme for Music Hubs, and initiated and oversees our Wired4Music Associates programme – supporting young people into paid work within our consultancy service.

For our consultancy service she leads our work with organisations across the UK and further afield to develop their work in areas such as participation, impact, inclusion, evaluation and strategy. Liz has delivered work with the likes of Arts Council England, Anthem Wales, BBC Children in Need, Bristol Beacon, English Heritage, Independent Venue Week, London Music Fund, London Symphony Orchestra, National Youth Arts Wales, Royal National Institute of the Blind and Music Hubs across England.

As Co-Director, Liz will continue to have specific responsibilities for our sector support strand and consultancy service, alongside joint responsibility for the charity as a whole.

Wizdom Layne (he/him)

Wizdom is an experienced creative practitioner who began his creative journey in the 90’s UK Rap group GreenJade, with whom he performed at the 2004 Athens Olympics, opened for JAY-Z, executive produced 10 albums and was the co-founder of the Gunz Down Schools Tour, which encouraged a passion for youth work in him. He joined XLP in 2010 as their Arts Director, where he developed young talent including Lola Young. He was also part of the team that set up the East London Arts and Media school (ELAM) and co-created the Big Music Project for the National Lottery, Global, UK Youth, and Universal Music.

After seven years at XLP, Wizdom partnered with Tileyard to create Tileyard Impact and developed a work experience programme for the creative industries. He also continued creating artist development programmes with the Prince’s Trust, Hospital Records and, most recently, MOBO Unsung. He has also been involved in writing the Media Broadcast and Production T-Level qualification.

Wizdom joined Sound Connections as Deputy Director in 2023, where his role included supporting the team, overseeing our work with young people through Wired4Music, and developing new partnerships across the music industry and music education landscape, which links to the New Plan for Music Education and the Centres for Excellence initiative.

As Co-Director, Wizdom will continue to have specific responsibilities for our Youth Voice and Participation, and Training and Professional Development strands, alongside joint responsibility for the charity as a whole.

Looking forward

On Wednesday 10 July, Liz and Wizdom’s first official day as Co-Directors, the Sound Connections team came together for an away day at the Royal Albert Hall.

The team considered how they felt about the charity today, reflecting on its values and relevance, as well as imagining what the future could look like. The outcomes of these initial conversations will help inform the new Business Plan (2025-2028) in the coming months.

About Sound Connections

Sound Connections exists to create change. We work across the music community to achieve inclusion, equity, and social justice. We do this through supporting young people, the music education workforce, and the wider music education sector. In addition to delivering charitable programmes, we offer a comprehensive consultancy service for music, arts, cultural and heritage organisations.