Call for registration: Masterclass series for aspiring black musicians

Classes are open to all black people, and no previous experience is required. They are aimed at giving aspiring black and ethnically black musicians insight into production, mastering, live performance and field recordings. Each session will host 300 people and will take 60 to 90 minutes.

The masterclass series will be led by Loraine James, KMRU, rRoxymore and Russell E. L. Butler.

“BAD co-founder Niks Delanancy and the team have worked tirelessly to bring black-owned record labels, artists, producers and bands to the forefront of the electronic music community and beyond,” Ableton UK and Ireland brand manager Shona MacMillan said. “We leapt at the opportunity to aid BAD to continue making a strong impact and focusing on diversity in the music industry.”

The first class, titled How to Turn Your Production Into a Live Performance, will be led by Loraine James. It will be followed by the Bus Processing Premasters class facilitated by Russell E. L. Butler in September. The Field Recording as a Compositional Tool class with KMRU will take place in October, before the final masterclass, An Intro to Live, by rRoxymore in November.

Interested participants can sign up for the classes here before 16 August at 6pm CAT. Successful applicants will be selected on August 22.

BAD was recently rebranded from Black Bandcamp – an organisation founded after the Black Lives Matter movement. The platform aims to spotlight black creatives from different fields and has amassed more than 3 500 users. The database has expended its focus beyond musicians to fields such as journalism, visual art and curation, among others.