Northern Lights Project Ltd Company limited by guarantee
Directors' report for the year ended 31 May 2024
The directors present their report and the financial statements for the year ended 31 May 2024.
Principal activity
The principal activity of the charitable company includes the promotion and development of cohesive and confident communities in Northern Ireland as well as empowered and creatively engaged individuals.
Directors
The directors who served during the year are as stated below:
Brian Stafford
Leanne Peacocke - Appointed 9th July 2024
Amanda Koser-Gillespie - Resigned 22 July 2024
Kevin Peter O'Doherty - Resigned 22 July 2024
Purpose and aims
Northern Lights Project is a Derry-based music organisation and charity. It was founded in 2016 with the purpose of creating, producing, and promoting cutting-edge new music and adventurous interdisciplinary arts events. The organisation develops innovative approaches to presentation with performances, workshops, and concerts in a range of public arenas.
Its main aims are to:
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Create, produce and promote new and innovative new music/sound-based and multi-media events;
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Promotes and present performances, concerts and other events;
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Use music as a tool for community engagement and development;
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Encourage and facilitate participation, particularly by young people, in music and the arts;
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Develop partnerships that cross boundaries between music, the arts and beyond.
Activities
Highlights in the season 2023-24, funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, included:
September – December 2023: The Oram Awards Series. This series provided a platform for innovation in sound, music, and related technologies. With the support of lead partners The Radiophonic Institute, PRS Foundation and the British Council, the aim of the awards is to elevate the work and voices of Women, Trans and Non-Binary music creators in electronic music.
Northern Lights Project Ltd Company limited by guarantee
Directors' report for the year ended 31 May 2024
October & November 2023 – Northern Lights Project marked the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Michel Chion’s “Requiem” in Belfast and Huddersfield.
February 2024 – Tour of N. Ireland and England – four concerts with Electric Circus and bass clarinettist Sarah Watts.
May 2024 – Tour of N. Ireland – two concerts with Electric Circus and violinist Darragh Morgan.
In 2023-24 we also continued with our regular series of Derry Sound Factory events presenting new and experimental music by local practitioners with regular events.
In 2023, with funding from Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s National Lottery Rural Engagement Arts Programme we ran “Cinema for the Qu(ear)s – a project for young LGBTQI+ people aged between 12 and 18 and living in rural areas in the North West to create the soundtrack for a new audio artwork.
Beneficiaries
Education and Outreach
Most of our concerts have included an education or outreach component with opportunities for various groups to actively take part in creative music-making. These have included school children and young people.
Our concert series provides a platform for new and experimental music and sound art, allowing participating artists to road-test new ideas and develop existing pieces. The series provides a space for creative exploration and risk-taking with a view to developing and presenting high-quality imaginative and innovative work.
We have attempted to programme a diverse series of music and sound-based events, each with a distinct identity and appealing to a slightly different audience segment. The intention is to attract a broad audience with overlapping interests ranging from contemporary art, improvisation, new music and electronica. Contemporary music is rather more established in Belfast and we believe that much is to be gained from developing links between Derry and Belfast to help strengthen both the sector, by catering for a small but curious audience, as well as providing these artists with much-needed exposure and performance opportunities.
Plans for the future
We plan to present a further series of concerts in Derry and Belfast in late 2024 and early 20245. They will feature Northern Irish and visiting artists from a range of disciplines, including improvised music, sound art, live art and electronic music. These artists have been chosen for their unique aesthetic voice, the high standard of their artistic abilities and the high quality of the work they produce. Each concert in the series foregrounds risk, experimentation and imagination and seeks to present inspiring work that would not otherwise be available for local audiences to experience.
The success of this series of events, highlights the need for and level of public interest in experimental music in Northern Ireland, particularly in the north west region. We are gradually building a dedicated audience and plan to continue to support experimental music artists, locally, regionally and nationally.
We have applied for substantial project funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to allow us to continue presenting music projects and to allow us to grow the reach of our activities in Derry and further afield.