Music

What we do

For more than two decades, An Tobar has been a key venue on the trad touring circuit, winning Venue of the Year at the 2019 MG ALBA Scots Trad Music Awards. We present performances by bands and musicians across a range of genres, aiming to bring an eclectic programme of exceptional music to Mull.

What we care about

We want to programme artists whose music captivates and transports our audiences. Building on our history as a key support to artists building their careers

How we work with music artists

Programming

We programme up to 50 music events annually in our intimate performance space at An Tobar as well as larger scale concerts and orchestras at Mull Theatre. We offer a mixture of fees and spilts and are working towards a 12 month programming lead in so the earlier you can contact us about a booking the better. Because Mull has a small population and our audience is geographically limited, we try to programme as eclectically as possible to make sure we serve as many people’s tastes as we can.

The An Tobar performance room is a flexible chamber music style performance with a good standard rig and PA system. Mull Theatre is a fully reconfigurable black box studio space with full height loading dock, a truss rig and vinyl dance floor.

Associate Artists

Our Associate Artists programme supports five artists from any creative discipline each year. The programme is advertised publicly and artists selected for the process receive two all expenses paid residencies plus a seed commission towards a new piece as well as a budget to engage with new creative experiences and develop their creative practice. We also commit to supporting graduates of the Associate Artists programme with a range of in-kind resources for a minimum of five years and hope that each year’s cohort will form a lasting peer support network that will sustain across a lifetime.

Residencies

We have a wealth of creative spaces at An Tobar & Mull Theatre and we want to use them to support as many artists as possible. We support residencies for artists with a clear idea of an artistic question they want to answer during their time with us. All of our staff are practicing artists and Mull has a vibrant artistic community so we encourage artists on residency with us to engage with creative dialogue with them to inspire and interrogate their own practice.

Creative Friendship

Our team have a wealth of skills and experience that can support artists in their day to day practice and as a publicly funded charity and Creative Scotland RFO, we believe that we have an obligation to share our resources as freely and widely as possible. We offer free of charge creative friendship,

mentoring and advice to artists whose practice intersects with our interests and are always happy to chat on Zoom or in person to share our learning.

How to get in touch

If you have an idea or project you want to work with us on, then the best first contact is to send us an email.

Tell us:

· Who you are

· What your idea is

· What you want from us (be specific! A performance date? Money? Advice? A Co-producer? A touring venue?)

· How you think the project fits within our artistic policy and how it will resonate for our audiences.

Keep your email short and clear and relaxed. We want to hear your authentic voice and get a sense of what matters to you. Attach supporting material if you feel it is essential, but bear in mind that we have limited capacity to read through reams of documents.

What we offer & what we expect.

We will be open and honest with you about our working processes.

We will make clear agreements and commitments and stick to them.

We will pay fairly.

We will support you to elevate your artistic and professional practice however we can.

We will give honest, constructive feedback about how we experience you and your work.

We expect you to be open and honest with us about the project and its development.

We expect you to honour your commitments to us and, if you can’t, to let us know as soon as possible.

We expect you to pay your collaborators fairly and treat them ethically.

We expect you to treat us as creative partners.

We expect you to give us honest and constructive feedback about our work.

If you have an inquiry about music performances please email tim@antobarandmulltheatre.co.uk