Decolonizing The Music Curriculum - Interview With Hugh Shepherd

Brissenden, Philip

Abstract

Decolonization of the Music Curriculum
Consent has been secured to share this data

Interview with Hugh Shepherd

Hugh Shepherd studied on the MA Music: Interactive Music and Studio Production programme at the University of Salford following the part-time mode in its original format of two years and one semester. He began his studies in 2016, having graduated from a music production degree at Future Works in Manchester, and at least initially, defined himself as a studio-based musician. However, his musical journey at UoS took a quite different path as he took up the West African Kora (harp type instrument), studying it first as an ethnomusicology project and subsequently as part of his Negotiated Final Project as he sought to broaden his experience and integrate his practice on the kora into his musicianship as a whole. He was one of the founding members of Collected Scatterings – the UoS worlds music ensemble in 2017.

Shepherd has had a varied career since graduating, earning a Management qualification from Harvard Business School and having developed strong and generalised skills and knowledge of business systems and processes from a mixture of entrepreneurial and managerial learnings. Hugh founded Canoris where work included the creation of a backing tracks for ITV’s The Voice Finalists, Belle Voci to perform at Wembley Stadium live on BBC national television for a Rugby Final, music and audio for the FutureDJs book ‘How to DJ’ released on leading music publisher Faber Music, work on clean edits for BBC Radio 1 AirPlay and recording and collaboration with various established artists.

While rising quickly at music education startup FutureDJs, he designed the highly acclaimed FutureDJs, Music Production Curriculum and Teachers Resource Pack of lesson materials, building a team of freelance experts and teachers to build a substantial music production curriculum consisting of more than 400 lesson plan documents and Soundtrap projects, like no other in the world, in less than 6 months - to the benefit of thousands of young UK and US students learning modern music in schools.

Shepherd took the helm leading FutureDJs, shortly before it launched as a subscription business B2C on the then-sister brand after managing significant transformational change from a B2B schools-based business. As a senior manager and a cultural co-founder, Hugh has taken on many different challenges over the past several years and gained key skills and qualifications in product, HR, people management, administration, systems and CRMs, data reporting and analysis, and leadership. He also developed valuable skills in the area of fundraising, grant execution and project management in order to make music accessible to those who might not otherwise have access, after raising significant grant monies from Arts Council England and managing a highly successful Innovate UK Sustainable Innovation fund project.

Shepherd recently joined Experiences startup Anymoment in February and is now leading the UK Anymoment team as the now recently appointed Executive Director, on a mission to bring joy to peoples’ lives through unforgettable shared experiences that are led by incredible people who get to earn from what they love to do.

Links

Link to Adam Doughty workshop where Koras are made

https://thekoraworkshop.co.uk/

Related music by Hugh Shepherd

https://soundcloud.com/has-music/sets/masters-degreefinal-negotiated-project

Current venture where Hugh Shepherd is Executive Director

https://anymoment.com

Hugh Shepherd’s Startup Consultancy

https://www.simconsulting.co.uk/

https://www.playvirtuoso.com

https://youthmusic.org.uk/node/4286 - Future1000

Citation

Brissenden, P. (2024). Decolonizing The Music Curriculum - Interview With Hugh Shepherd. [Dataset]. https://doi.org/10.17866/rd.salford.24271072.v1

• Online Publication Date: Nov 13, 2024
• Publication Date: Nov 13, 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 21, 2024
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.17866/rd.salford.24271072.v1
• Collection Date: Nov 13, 2024