Beirut Musicians Support Program
A newly established fund, aimed at creating activity on the Beirut music scene.
In the wake of Lebanon’s multitude of crises, Oslo World and Beirut & Beyond International Music Festival announce the innovative Musicians Support Program aimed at providing Lebanon-based musicians and parts of the music community with both immediate and long-term career support.
The immediate support takes the form of direct-to-artist paid commissions for new recorded works, modest financial support for their recording, mixing and mastering (paid directly to the engineers), and the release of these new works as part of a digital-only compilation album, which will be distributed and promoted internationally across all streaming and download services by Beirut and Beyond.
The long-term support will include administrative and financial support to register the musicians and their entire catalogue of original works with the performance royalties organisation SACEM (covered by Beirut and Beyond), so that they are able to receive performance, publishing and mechanical royalties for their works for the rest of their careers.
All musicians who are currently based in Lebanon are eligible to apply for the program, regardless of their music’s genre, their nationality, their experience or their lineup. We have made every effort to keep the format, requirements and language of the application itself as simple as possible.
A committee of local and international professionals will make a gender-balanced selection from the applicants based on the artistic strengths of the musicians’ previous work, regardless of whether those works have been officially released or not. The committee includes: Yasmine Hamdan (independent musician/composer), Khyam Allami (independent musician/composer), Tarek Yamani (independent musician/composer), Alexandra Archetti (Director, Oslo World), Lara Khoury (independant consultant MENA), Racha Salah (independent cultural consultant) and Soudabeh Kia (World Music advisor, Theatre de la Ville).
Aside from engaging the music community in creative practice during these complex times, and providing them with immediate and long-term career support, the compilation album resulting from this initiative will be a distinct postcard of its time, marking a significant point in Lebanon’s history with honest, independent and artistic musical responses.
Beirut and Beyond’s Musicians Support Programme was created in collaboration with musician/composer Khyam Alami and is funded by the Norwegian Embassy in Beirut, fundraisers organized by Oslo World, Tunefork and Theatre de la Ville, and SACEM.
Deadline for applications is 28 December 2020.
