Sound World is a UK music charity founded in 2018. Its motto is “Great music for everyone” and it works primarily in the fields of music education, music outreach, concert promotion and commissioning. Its patrons include Dame

Evelyn Glennie Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015. Early life Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire, in Scotland. The i ...

and

Armando Iannucci Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer and performer. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of Oxford. St ...

and it was founded by British composer Julian Leeks. Its first major project was “The Composing Club” which visited schools in disadvantaged areas around Bristol and Bath. It resulted in pupils having their own compositions being performed and recorded by The Bristol Ensemble. In 2019, Sound World created “In The Steps of Apollo” a music and planetarium show produced in collaboration with the planetarium at We The Curious, Bristol. It premièred on 20 July 2019, exactly 50 years after the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 was a spaceflight conducted from July 16 to 24, 1969, by the United States and launched by NASA. It marked the first time that humans Moon landing, landed on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module pilot Buzz Aldrin l ...

Moon landing. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic saw all live music events in the UK postponed. Sound World responded with the Coronavirus Fund for Freelance Musicians, a crowdfunded project supporting freelance performers with “lockdown” recording work. Composers, including

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

, Dame

Nico Muhly Nico Asher Muhly (; born August 26, 1981) is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestra ...

, Graham Fitkin, Sadie Harrison,

Gavin Bryars Richard Gavin Bryars (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer and double bassist. He has worked in jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, Musical historicism, historicism, Avant-garde music, avant-garde, and experimental music. Early lif ...

Mark-Anthony Turnage Mark-Anthony Turnage (born 10 June 1960) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. Life and career Mark-Anthony Turnage was born in Corringham, Essex on 10 June 1960. Turnage was the eldest of three children. His parents were lov ...

, Michael Ellison, John Pickard, Geoff Poole, Howard Skempton,

Sally Beamish Sarah Frances Beamish (born 26 August 1956) is a British composer and violist. Her works include chamber, vocal, choral and orchestral music. She has also worked in the field of music, theatre, film and television, as well as composing for ch ...

and Julian Leeks, waived their commission fees and contributed specially written works which were then recorded by members of The Bristol Ensemble in lockdown. The first release to come from the project was “The Grace of Silence” by Evelyn Glennie in January 2021. The album, called ''Reflections'', was released on 8 December 2021 exactly one year after Margaret Keenan from the UK became the first person in the world to receive a Covid 19 vaccine outside of a clinical trial. Sound World also holds an annual competition for young composers, the Sound World Young Composers’ Prize. With the 2020 and 2021 competition being cancelled due to the pandemic, the current holder of the prize is Jasper Eaglesfield who won with the piece “Birthday Letters. In late 2024 Sound World began releasing a podcast series ''A land without music?'' The series addresses various aspects of music in the UK including the decline of music in state education and, what Sound World sees as, the failure of governments to recognise music's value or to provide adequate financial support. Guests are primarily drawn from the world of music, including Sound World patrons Dame Evelyn Glennie and composer John Pickard, along with Jörg Widmann (conductor, clarinetist and composer-in-residence for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), Nico Muhly (US composer) and others. These are supplemented by expert contributors from other fields such as Prof Daisy Fancourt, director of the World Health Organization Centre on Arts & Health,{{Cite web , date=2023-01-06 , title=WHO Collaborating Centre for Arts and Health - SBRG , url=https://sbbresearch.org/projects/who-collaborating-centre-for-arts-and-health/#:~:text=Collaborating%20with%20the%20World%20Health,on%20our%20health%20and%20wellbeing. , access-date=2025-04-26 , language=en-US and Dr

Iain McGilchrist Iain McGilchrist (born 1953) is a British psychiatrist,, philosopher and neuroscientist who wrote the 2009 book '' The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World''. He is a Quondam fellow of All Souls Colle ...

(neuroscience researcher, psychiatrist and author of ''

The Master and His Emissary ''The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World'' is a 2009 book written by psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist that deals with the specialist hemispheric functioning of the brain. The differing world views of the r ...

'' ).

References

Music charities based in the United Kingdom 2018 establishments in England Charities based in Bristol