Ruby Turner’s Interview For ‘Success Beyond The Score’, Now On AffinityXtra

The radio station AffinityXtra is going to play the second part of Millicent’s interview with Ruby Turner for her podcast ‘Success Beyond The Score’ today at noon.

The episode is going to be repeated on Sunday, also at noon, so if you don’t have time in a couple hours, you can always tune in during the weekend!

Click here to go to AffinityXtra

Remember that both seasons of the podcast are available on platforms like Libsyn, and the second season is in video format on Millicent’s YouTube channel.

Shirley Șerban sings ‘Menopause Rhapsody’

Shirley Șerban is an musician from New Zealand who has always enjoyed the combination between music and humour. Since the pandemic started, she has been creating parodies of famous songs in which she addresses themes like aging, sickness, difficult neighbours, relaxing hobbies that turn stressful, etc.

On May 2021, Shirley decided to “relyric” Queen’s most famous song, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, to talk about menopause, a theme we have touched several times in Cafemnee. The result is not to be missed:

What did you think? We had a good laugh! You can find and support Shirley on her YouTube channel and on Facebook.

Keychange Talent Development Programme Is Looking For Applicants

Women and gender minority artists and innovators are invited by Keychange to take part in a year-long programme of development. It includes international opportunities, training, mentoring, networking and promotion globally throughout 2022!

Don’t miss the chance to apply and benefit from this effort that seeks to overcome barriers that women and gender minorities encounter in the music industry.

Applications close on October 4th, 2021. Find the criteria, guidelines and application process on Keychange’s website.

Ruby Turner’s Full Interview for ‘Success Beyond The Score’

The second part of the interview with Ruby Turner for Millicent’s podcast “Success Beyond The Score” is already up in all podcast platforms and YouTube.

In this episode, Ruby goes more in depth about her life and the impact that things such as COVID-19, the BLM movement and even menopause have had in her personal experience. She also gives some more valuable advice for aspiring musicians and a lot of laughs!

A easy way to look for funding opportunities

Ironically enough, many funding opportunities go to waste despite the fact that many more musicians are desperate for finding financial support. This happens for a number of reasons, one of them being that musicians don’t know where to look for funding aid and they don’t see the calls on time to successfully apply.

To help with this, Help Musicians created a search engine for funding opportunities. You can filter your search by instrument, genre, level of expertise and other factors that will promptly allow you to find the financial support you need. You can also browse their list of all currently active calls in the same website.

Click here to visit the search engine.

We hope this helps!

New MU+FAC Joint Guidance for Session Musicians and Featured Artists

Knowing whether you should be engaged as a session musician or as a featured artist can often be obvious, but there are times when your role can be difficult to determine. This can be particularly difficult for lead vocalists going in to work with another artist or producer, but can also apply to an instrumentalist taking on a lead role.

In order to help with this, the Musicians Union (MU) and the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) have created a joint guidance that aims to offer advice to creators. It provides guidelines and template questions for you to ask the engager, in order for you to make an informed decision and understand where it might be necessary to negotiate.

Consult the whole document in this link. Join the Musicians Union for more information and helpful resources to work as a musician in the United Kingdom.

Ruby Turner reveals how to have a long-lasting music career in ‘Success Beyond The Score’

R&B and Soul legend Ruby Turner is the latest guest in Millicent’s podcast, “Success Beyond The Score”. In the first part of the interview, Ruby tells us how she got started in music and how she has stayed active for more than thirty years!

You can listen to this episode on any of your favourite podcast platforms, and next week through AffinityXtra radio.

Nightbirde sings to tell us that “It’s Ok”

Jane Marczweski, whose stage name is “Nightbirde”, got the golden buzzer of the popular TV talent show American Got Talent with her original song “It’s Ok”, which tells the story of her recent life dealing with cancer. Her authenticity and her corageous stance in the face of pain and difficulty won the jury’s hearts, and we think her message can also touch you and help you with your personal journey.

You can find Nightbirde on Apple Music

Listen To Dan Whitehouse’s Advice on AffinityXtra Radio

Today at noon, AffinityXtra will play both sections of the interview that Millicent had with Dan Whitehouse for her podcast, “Success Beyond The Score”. This is a rare occurence, as normally they divide the interview in the same way it is played on other platforms. Take the chance to listen to the full conversation and soak in the knowledge and good advice that Dan shared with Millicent.

You can listen through www.affinityxtra.com.

The Experience Of A Djembe Player On ‘Time For My Music’

We are approaching the first anniversary of ‘Time For My Music’, the online community created to help women in music stay active and connected during lockdown. The experience has been fantastic, but rather than tell you so ourselves, we thought it would be better to ask some of the members of the community about how they feel.

The testimonial you are about to read was kindly sent by Carlene. Thank you!

I have been attending Millicent Stephenson’s CAFEMNEE for a while now, which launched my Djembe playing after not playing for approx. 8 years.  We were due to have a workshop, but due to the lockdown; Millicent decided to move this online and launched an online women’s music community group = T4MM in September 2020.

It was a big change, to go from face-to-face to online, using technology I had never been part of before. Another learning curve.  By being part of this group, Millicent encouraged us to take our music to the ‘next level’, and to the next level she took us.  Once a month, we have had a workshop on various subjects to do with the music industry; such as: uploading videos, exploring YouTube (private and public publishing), licensing and distribution, royalties, copyright, PA systems and microphones, lighting (which has led me to purchase equipment to enhance my Djembe playing i.e., an audio interface. I had never heard of such a thing, let alone purchasing one before this group!).  We addressed backing tracks, acappella, back drops, benefits of being a member of the Musicians Union, and so much more over the past eight (8) months.

We have also had a monthly session of ‘Drinks, Chill and Chat’ (DCC) whereby the women who are part of T4MM can come and spend an hour and half bringing a drink of their choice and just ‘chill and chat’ about anything and everything. Then, we focus on our musical interludes, etc. During one of these DCC, Millicent posed the question – let us have an online musical event, yet again building, increasing our experience and exposure with our own music, musical instruments, etc.  This has allowed us to really see what it takes behind the scenes to bring a performance to fruition.  Hence, and event that will take place on July 3rd, 2021.

With all the above and women joining the community group at varying levels of their musical journeys, what this community group does and gives me is the time and space to explore, experiment, sharpen my skills, and fuse musical ideas with likewise women. I have grown tremendously in my musical journey and applaud and commend Millicent on her leadership and vision on our behalf.  Many thanks Millicent and to the women of T4MM.

Onward and UPWARD!!!

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