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I was always aware that Sunderland had a rich musical heritage, but the more I have become immersed in this wonderful city, I have become increasingly aware of a curious, contemporary, and creative community of artists and musicians, who are not only talented but who have aspirations to broaden their own musical horizons and challenge themselves with the creation of new music outside their usual sphere.

Tamsin Austin, Venue Director, The Fire Station. Photo © David Wood

Not only that, these musicians and composers are passionate about engaging Sunderland audiences with contemporary work and want to feed a hunger that is here in the city for new music and adventure.

This first came home to me when I read a proposal from Ross Millard, guitarist and singer from the Futureheads to compose a new fugue, a spoken/sung choral work with landmarks of Sunderland at its heart, playing on the musicality, pitch and tempo of the Mackem (Sunderland) dialect.

To be performed as part of a wider programme of notable minimalist compositions, performed by a diverse mixture of not just classical players but musicians form the indie/rock DIY scene and pitched at an audience that would not normally attend modern classical performance as part of a community festival.

The Futureheads are legendary in Sunderland, as a post-punk, indie rock band, but with a depth of contemporary music knowledge between them and an appetite to bring it to the masses. It was a great discovery.

Since then I have recently hugely enjoyed working with the UK’s national organisation for new music, Sound and Music, on a place- based composer/curator scheme in Sunderland and Hull, engaging with a range of wild and wonderful ideas and concepts from artists and composers.

Through this scheme we have recently commissioned three projects – Ruth Hughes's Angel With Me project, a new work melding together an unlikely sound-world of classic Sunderland Makina and Hardcore music with monophonic, liturgical plainchant; David De la Haye’s With Ears Underwater – a series of field recordings in various water sources around Sunderland, interpreted and explored in a free improv setting with live musicians; and the development of a new music festival for Sunderland, Boundaries, designed to open the ears of audiences to adventurous and experimental new music in an informal and welcoming setting at The Fire Station and The Peacock.

Given that the North East is already home to TUSK Festival (the now legendary home of adventurous international music and which pioneered the hybrid format of a live/online festival, long before a pandemic forced everyone to become an overnight live stream expert), which has recently emerged from the ashes of the pandemic into TUSK North, and with the forthcoming intriguing all nighter, After Dark Festival at Sage Gateshead, it's fair to say the North East is in pretty healthy shape when it comes to contemporary music.