Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival producer wins national award

Music producer Laura Ducceschi announced as winner of the £10,000 Arts Foundation fellowship for the Producer of Live Music category supported by PRS for Music Foundation.

Last night at London’s 20th Century Theatre, special guest Sebastian Faulks announced Laura Ducceschi as the winning producer in this category supported by PRS for Music Foundation, which shines the spotlight on the creative talents behind our progressive live music scene.

Laura Ducceschi said ‘I am absolutely stoked and partly in shock to have been awarded The Arts Foundation Fellowship. It’s a big thing for me to receive this acknowledgement and I feel humbled to sit amongst some of the incredible names to have received this fellowship. It fuels the flame in me to dare to dream and try and do what I can to play a part in bold art being outputted from this country. I would like to say a big thank you to the colleagues, organisations and most importantly artists who have been happy to share some unconventional journeys with me.’

Noted both for her groundbreaking work as an independent producer and for projects she initiated both at the De la Warr Pavilion and a Brighton Festival & Brighton Dome, she was considered by the judges, composer Gabriel Prokofiev, Vanessa Reed (PRS for Music Foundation) and Jane Beese (Roundhouse) an admirable and worthy recipient.

Jane Beese said, ‘I’ve been following Laura’s work since her brilliant programming at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill. Her work there was so innovative that you would often bump into people that you knew from all along the South Coast. Moving to Brighton Festival was a perfect move for Laura’s scale of ideas and really proved the ambition and creativity of her work.’

Vanessa Reed Executive Director of PRS for Music Foundation said, ‘Huge congratulations to Laura on being selected for this Producers of Live Music Fellowship and to all the shortlisted panellists who demonstrate the talent and creativity that's bubbling up from behind the scenes to drive innovation and new ways for audiences to experience new music.

‘The panel was particularly impressed by Laura's track record, the ambition of her ideas and the potential for this award to be a game changer for Laura as she strives to carve out more time to develop her career as an independent producer. I look forward to following her next steps over the next few years.’

Laura has worked in music-led programming and producing for 15 years. Music Producer at Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival since 2011, her passion lies in presenting work that creates new experiences for audiences and has an interdisciplinary slant; combining a sound, visual and conceptual approach.

Describing her work within music as a crusade, Ducceschi creates and nurtures projects that step aside from the typical music industry models, allowing her to work with artists to better develop their ideas and concepts, understand their practice and take risks to step into new terrains. In this vein, Laura has recently initiated a new programming strand at Brighton Dome called earsthetic, (a mini festival that presents projects by artists whose practice starts from a visual and sonic perspective) and produced Live_Transmission, an audio visual project presented in Brighton Festival 2012 that has gone onto tour internationally.

Laura is currently working on a multi-media project for the upcoming 50th Brighton Festival alongside guest director, Laurie Andersen. Other future projects include Moments of Weightlessness, a collaboration with Sarah Nicolls, originally tested and presented as part of the earsthetic programme, and due to embark on a UK tour produced by Third Ear Productions. Her future independent projects include ‘Modern Godliness’, a large scale, non-religious production which she is currently developing. Her aims for the project include creating ‘a sense of connecting with a feeling of something much bigger than our mortal selves’.

Laura has also worked as Head of Live Programming for 4 years at the De La Warr Pavilion and as an artist manager, radio presenter, musician and promoter.

The runners-up in this category were Suzy Glass, John Stevens and Kate Whitley, each of whom received £1,000.