Serious

Photo by Emile Holba

International Partnerships & Networks

We are outward looking. Our connections are global and our work has taken us to Europe, Australia and Africa.

We are active members of international networks including the European Jazz Network and the International Jazz Festivals Organisation and have received financial support from international bodies including the European Commission, the European Cultural Foundation and the Anna Lindh Foundation. Our specialist skills at facilitating complex collaborations between artists from different cultures and our expertise in the area of intercultural dialogue are regularly applied to working with international partners - government organisations and NGOs, fellow festivals and producers.

We play a pivotal role in bringing emerging artists from around the world and international musical cultures to the attention of British audiences.

These projects illustrate the breadth of our international connections:

• Banlieues Bleues

Serious has a long history of collaborating with this innovative festival which takes place in the outskirts of Paris each year. We have co-produced many collaborations and have devised workshop programmes together. This has included co-producing Jazz Odyssey: Music & Migration, which explored Europe’s history of migration through music and was supported by the European Commission

• HSBC Cultural Exchange

Serious has been working with HSBC’s international residency programme to facilitate a three month residency for Hungarian multi-instrumentalist Robi Farkas and producer Andrea Gancs in Curitiba in southern Brazil. Read all about it on their blog: http://robiandandiinbrazil.wordpress.com/

• Music On the Line

As part of a wider Oxfam programme initiated by Jon Snow, Serious brought together 10 artists from different countries along the Meridian line to perform together first in Ghana and then in London.

• Scene Norway

As part of the 2008 London Jazz Festival, Serious worked with artists, government bodies and cultural agencies throughout Norway to present a week-long celebration of the very best of Norwegian culture at the newly opened Kings Place.

• Women of Africa

This project brought together some of Africa’s finest female vocal talent – Sibongile Khumalo, Sally Nyolo, Hanitra Rasonaivo and Oumou Sangare – in a project that was developed in Swaziland before touring Europe and South Africa.