Music

What we do

For more than two decades, An Tobar has been a key venue on the Scottish 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 support local talent and bring an eclectic programme of exceptional music to Mull.

We programme up to 50 music events each year across the island from large scale gigs to intimate ‘Home concerts’.  Recent highlights have included Ailie Robertson conducting the Scottish Ensemble, Malin Lewis and their band thrilling Tobermory & Bunessan and Simeon Walker playing 6 different pianos over 2 days! 

Our main music performance space is at An Tobar hosting up to 60 people for each gig, we provide a well supported, friendly atmosphere for artists and audience in our unusual historic venue. Larger scale concerts or orchestras are hosted down the road at Mull Theatre. The An Tobar performance room is a flexible chamber music style performance space with a good standard rig and PA system. We have two lovely pianos - one upright and one baby grande - both available for practice! Mull Theatre is a fully reconfigurable black box studio space with full height loading dock, a truss rig and vinyl dance floor. 

Over the last few winter seasons we have been developing our unique ‘home gigs’ where artists tour to different homes across Mull playing a set to small audiences at each stop. Each gig brings a different sound and crowd - popular with both performers and audiences we plan to continue these next winter. Do get in touch if you’d like to host a gig or are interested in performing, you can always reach me at tim@antobarandmulltheatre.co.uk

We offer a mixture of fees and spilts and like to programme with plenty of lead in, so the earlier you can contact us about a booking the better. Because Mull has a small population and travel can be tricky, we try to programme as eclectically as possible to make sure we serve as many people’s tastes as we can. 

With generous support from Charlotte Aitken Trust and the Wooden Spoon Trust we were delighted to be able to install a new fully equipped production suite at An Tobar. You can come to work on music production, video editing, podcasts or sound design, the studio is linked to the performance space via a Dante network. We were delighted to launch this facility with a youth-focussed programme: bringing in inspiring producer Dylan Cooper (Post Malone, Lil Peep, Ashley O (Miley Cyrus)), and Glasgow club owner & DJ Mikolaj Szatko.  Working in partnership with the High School Ivor Novello award winning sound-artist Kathy Hinde looked at midi and graphic scores whilst Sonja Killman experimented with synthesis, generating live film scores. We’re very much looking forward to continuing this creative partnership with Tobermory High School.

Residencies

We have a wealth of creative spaces at An Tobar and 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. Find out more about our In The Wings R&D programme here.

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