BOOM

BOOM is OCM’s annual professional development scheme for music / sound artists / musicians and producers who are interested in creating and presenting inspiring contemporary music or sound based work outside of the concert hall and gallery (i.e. in unconventional spaces, outdoors, and in the digital realm). The scheme supports the development of artists (at any stage of their career) who are passionate about engaging with large and diverse audiences with contemporary performance, digital practice and installation work.

We are now accepting applications for BOOM 2025-26.

You can see examples of previous OCM projects here: ocmevents.org/projects and watch videos of some of our work here: www.youtube.com/@ProducedByOCM

Details of previous BOOM artists can be found below.

If you would like to apply:

Please first download the application information pack here to read full details about the scheme, who can apply, and how to apply. An audio version of the pack can be heard here: https://on.soundcloud.com/qfcpJQygBTDArjM87C
Please email your application to victoria@ocmevents.org with the subject line ‘Application for OCM BOOM 2025-26’
The application deadline is midday Thursday 10th July 2025.
Once you have submitted your application please fill out a monitoring form here: https://forms.gle/ZezakNLCYNYQFGAN8 to complete the application. All responses are anonymised and are not connected to your application.
Applicants will be notified whether or not they will be offered a place by 17th July 2025 at the latest.

Contact Victoria Larkin at OCM if you have any questions or queries about BOOM: victoria@ocmevents.org.

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.

The 2024-25 BOOM artists were:

Antonio Roberts

Antonio Roberts is an artist, musician and curator based in Birmingham, UK. His practice is concerned with how the misuse of digital technology impacts people of colour and other marginalised groups.

His recent work focuses on the depiction of Black people in digital media, ranging from stereotypical misrepresentations in early video games to modern algorithms and AI codifying existing biases.

His (Algo|Afro) Futures mentoring programme teaches live coding software as a way to address how Black people have been under/mispreresented in digital art and electronic music, despite being pivotal to its development.

He is currently learning game development, with the aim to explore how immersive environments can be used as a narrative storytelling device. He is also working on his debut EP, created using a combination of live coding software and hardware synthesisers.

Website Instagram Mastodon YouTube Soundcloud Github

KlangHaus

KlangHaus is a live art company composed of three musicians and a filmmaker. The work is bespoke, agile, terrifying, gorgeous and rooted in the tropes of cinema, theatre and the very finest elements of live rock n roll. For 10 years we have performed outside of traditional venues, in abandoned and sometimes derelict buildings, including a bus depot, a small animal hospital, locked rooms and the ceiling and roof spaces of The Royal Festival Hall. Our next steps are literally into the outdoors and the OCM BOOM team will be our perfect guides.

Website Bandcamp YouTube

Tej Adeleye

Tej Adeleye is an audio producer, writer, cultural programmer and trainee archivist based in London. She has produced arts and current affairs programmes and documentaries for Radio 3, Radio 4, 1xtra , BBC Radio 3’s flagship improvised music programme Freeness. She is a trustee at The George Padmore Institute and currently works as producer at Bernie Grant Arts Centre alongside her freelance work.

Linktree Instagram

Liz Hanks

Liz Hanks is a cellist, composer and collaborator based in Sheffield. Her composition draws on her influences throughout her eclectic career: minimalism, folk, Indian classical music and improvisation.

Based on the forgotten natural worlds of her neighbourhood in Sheffield, her debut album ‘Land’ combines cello and field recordings to bring these lost landscapes back to life. Having received plays on BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified, Late Junction and BBC Radio 2’s The Folk Show, the album has been described as ‘stunning’ by Elizabeth Alker, ‘really intriguing’ by Mark Radcliffe and as ‘an immersive album of depth and subtlety’ by Folk Radio UK. Liz’s music has also been made into an audio walk, used as the soundtrack for the Radio 4 drama ‘Psappho in Fragments’ and has been remixed by Jason Singh, Richard Norris, Haiku Salut and Leafcutter John.

Liz is also the long standing cellist for Richard Hawley, Thea Gilmore and Martin Simpson and and has toured with many artists including Liam Gallagher, Pulp, Cara Dillon and Jasdeep Singh Degun.

Website Instagram X Facebook Hudson Records Bandcamp