We’re pleased to announce that OCM is accepting applications for BOOM 2026/27.
BOOM is OCM’s annual career and creative development scheme for artists or producers working with sound and music. We want to work with creators who are interested in making inspiring new music and sound experiences for audiences in unusual, outdoor, and public spaces – outside of concert halls or galleries. We want to help artists to develop their skills to work in new places, including digital, with a focus on making music and sound for audiences from all backgrounds.
OCM will support five artists or producers through the BOOM programme, which will run for six months from October 2026 to March 2027. We welcome applications from all genres, creative specialisms, and backgrounds as long as the focus for this scheme is music/sound based. We recognise that some communities have not been represented in BOOM previously and want to make sure this opportunity is open to everyone, no matter what your background or the challenges you have faced. We would love to hear from you if you identify as being a woman, trans, non-binary, from the Global Majority, a lower socio-economic background, or are disabled, or neurodivergent.
BOOM aims to help artists and producers who are ready to make a creative leap in their career. It is open to early, and mid-career artists, as well as more established practitioners looking to make a real and exciting change in their work. BOOM is not a commissioning scheme; you may produce work during the scheme, but the primary goal is artistic development, whether this results in the production of work or not. There will be no expectation of public presentation of work at the end of the scheme. The OCM team will mentor and guide artists through the scheme, supporting a learning and development journey; they won’t be working to produce / present the work of the artists on the scheme during BOOM.
We are enormously grateful for the generous support of Sound UK to create a fifth place on this year’s BOOM. This place will be the Sound UK BOOM Fellow.
This year, one of the places on BOOM will have a data sonification focus – our Climate BOOM Fellowwith CEDA. More details can be found in our Application Pack.
If you are interested in applying to BOOM 2026/27 please read the Application pack, which contains full details about the scheme and how to apply:
The deadline for applications is: 8am on Monday 27th July 2026.
Contact Victoria Larkin if you have any questions about applying: victoria@ocmevents.org.
OCM and BOOM is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Network Partner supported by PPL.
If you are intrested in learning about BOOM and other opportunities both from OCM and partner and peers organisations that we share on their behalf, then please sign up to OCM’s Opportunities Mailing List.
BOOM artists for 2025-6 were:
Tej Adeleye
Tej Adeleye is a writer, audio producer and cultural programmer. She is a producer for BBC Radio 3’s Freeness, and has produced a range of cultural and current affairs programmes and features for platforms including BBC Radio 1xtra, Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC Worldservice. She has written for publications including Clash, The Wire, We Jazz Magazine and The Quietus. She has curated live music nights across London including Chila Nathi and Accidental Powercut. Her interests include climate health, disability justice, archives and improvised music.
Corner of the Garden
Corner of the Garden is a new music project by electronic artist Sam Dickison (Kulture) and singer songwriter Rachael Dadd. Together they create music that is an ode to nature, especially to the green spaces within their home city of Bristol. Using nature as a palette they begin each piece with field recordings – ambience and atmosphere and the sounds of them playing in the woods, whooping and creating percussion from sticks and logs. Sam then transforms these into sketches of beats and synth chords made from the elements. Rachael then sculpts them further with vocals, piano and clarinet and embellishes them with narrative and meaning. The results are something immediately catchy and dancey, whilst simultaneously being healing and therapy-like. Corner of the Garden released their first single Convalesce on 15th August 2025, which will be followed up by the release of their debut 4 song EP later in the year.
Rachael Dadd’s socials:
Website | YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | X
TOBITHEFREAK
TOBITHEFREAK is a South London-born Nigerian artist, producer, DJ and multi-instrumentalist, carving out a unique sonic space with his self-coined genre, “moody blue” (alt-electronic R&B). Unbound by traditional classifications, he blends elements of electronic soundscapes, soulful R&B, and alternative experimentation whilst adding a bounce intrinsically synonymous with black music. TOBITHEFREAK writes, produces, mixes, and masters his music independently, often incorporating live instrumentation into his tracks. Influenced by the likes of Steve Lacy, Sampha, Frank Ocean, and Blood Orange, TOBITHEFREAK’s music exudes a raw, emotive depth while pushing the boundaries of contemporary sound.
The artist is working towards releasing a full-length project this autumn in which will formally introduce himself and his sound to the world. The project called “Just because I write about you, doesn’t mean I care” in which he tackles themes of indifference, loneliness and their intersection
After spending the last 4 years honing his craft on the production and recording side of things the artist is now beginning a pivot toward primarily being a performance artist centring the compositions around live performances instead of the other way around.
Aris Daryono
I am an Indonesian composer, traditional gamelan musician, and educator based in London.
My music is deeply inspired by my gamelan heritage and my expertise in gamelan, which I transform into compositions for a wide range of ensembles—from solo and duet to quartet and full orchestra. I explore diverse musical mediums, incorporating Western ensembles, traditional gamelan instruments, hybrid setups blending gamelan with other instruments, and electronic elements.
Collaboration is a key aspect of my work. I have partnered with puppeteers, jazz musicians, folk ensembles, choreographers, dramatists, visual artists, programmers, and DJs. My work has been featured on the Indonesian Gamelan Composers album by Yatra Production (Italy), in residencies at Snape Maltings, and in publications by the American Gamelan Institute.
I studied music in Indonesia before earning a Master’s in Composition from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a PhD from the University of York. My research and compositions focus on the intersections of gamelan and contemporary music.
Recent highlights include performances at the Colourscape Music Festival in London, a collaboration with artist Arahmaiani for her Tate Modern exhibition, and a partnership with Sriwhana Spong for the Busan Biennale. This year, I presented my string quartet Cekaking Carita at the Asian Composers’ League festival in Japan and performed my composition for gamelan and electronic at Classical:NEXT 2025 event in Berlin, Germany.
Website | YouTube | SoundCloud
Verity Standen
Verity Standen is a composer, director, performer and choir leader. She gathers people together to sing and explores different ways that people can experience vocal music. Her projects take a range of forms – concerts, theatre pieces, films, installations, community events – but they always start with the voice.
Verity’s performance work has toured across the UK and internationally, from village halls in the Outer Hebrides to the National Theatre, Prague to Shanghai. She has been commissioned by organisations including MAYK, Bristol Old Vic, Situations and English Heritage.
She has woven singers amongst audience members, had whole audiences blindfolded and hugged by singers, created concerts for one person at a time, filled castles, cafes and hospital wards with song.
Verity is based in Frome, Somerset, where she runs an open-to-all choir.
OCM is a PRS Foundation Talent Network Partner supported by PPL.
Past BOOM artists/producers were:
Antonio Roberts
KlangHaus
Liz Hanks
Debris Stevenson
Ellie Wilson
UAH aka Usman Haque
Working Boys Club
Ardal Bicnic
Bilge Nur Yilmaz
Kevin Leomo
Rawz
Simon James
Hannah Fredsgaard
Joshua Le Gallienne
Marcus Joseph
Simone Seales & Rylan Gleave
Charlotte Marlow
Fionnuala Dorrity
Liminal Creative (Louise Cole & Carl Cole)
Calum Perrin
Emily Jones
Rie Nakajima
Nicholas O’Brien
Steve Urquhart
Breathing Space
Iain Chambers
Sarah Nicolls
Tim Hill
Mike Blow
Errollyn Wallen
Kate Halsall
Kate Romano
Sam Underwood
Kathy Hinde
Emma Smith
Eleanor Hooper
DIM Productions (Esther Tew & Harriet Wallis)
