MENTORING
Miwa will be mentored by:
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Recently hailed by MOJO as one of their 'voices taking folk into the future', Angeline Morrison is a traditional and folk singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose work combines a deep love of folk song, with a deep respect for the hidden voices and forgotten ancestors of Old Albion. Believing in the power of enchantment for decoloniality, Angeline channels the forgotten Black ancestors in the history of these islands, re-storying their lives into song. Angeline has performed on BBC 2's Later with Jools Holland, the BBC Proms, and received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Composers.
Carolene is the founder of Swallow’s Wings Puppetry, a London based grassroot community art organisation dedicated at empowering children with a reverence for and love of African-Caribbean culture and history.
Swallow’s Wings Puppetry work with children, neurodiverse & hearing impaired communities as well as elders in their homes & community settings. We enchant, entertain, educate and build cross-generational dialogue.
MIWA NAGATO-APTHORP
Miwa Nagato-Apthorp is a Singer-Songwriter based in Hawick in the Scottish Borders. Her songwriting practice draws on folk traditions to explore multicultural understandings of history, climate, gender and home. She has performed at John McCusker’s Southside of the Tracks, Celtic Connections, Edinburgh Tradfest and opened for Eddi Reader and Rachael Sermanni. Miwa was recently Musician in Residence at Alchemy Film & Arts and Connecting Threads where she developed new music exploring lesser-known histories and perspectives of the Scottish Borders and beyond. Her debut EP, Noren, was released in March 2025 and she was awarded “Best Acoustic at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards.
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As director of Tantrum Records, solo artist MALKA and former lead singer/songwriter of 6 Day Riot, Tamara Schlesinger has written and released 9 albums in 20 years. She has enjoyed chart success, extensively toured the UK, Europe and North America, has played at numerous festivals such as Glastonbury and Bestival and has achieved acclaim from major press. Her music has amassed a vast amount of play on national radio (BBC 6music, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2) and she regularly syncs her music to domestic TV shows - a career breakthrough being Skins. She has had her music used in US TV shows (Awkward, Finding Carter, MTV Catfish) and Hollywood films and trailers (Scream 4, 127 Hours).
Tamara started in the industry over 25 years ago and has built her career from the ground up, creating her own record label and releasing her own music. She has managed and booked all tours for her various releases and draws from her degree in fashion from Central St Martin's to create all aspects of the visual identity for her projects.
Having learnt her trade as a practitioner, Tamara now mentors various artists that are releasing their own music and has over 10 years experience as a lecturer and writing courses in Music Business. Tamara is a regular panelist and guest lecturer at industry events, is a member of the SMC board, a member of the Ivor Novello Scottish Council and was previously a board member of SWIM (Scottish Women Inventing Music and the SMIA Advisory Board. Tamara is currently working on her new album and regularly tours and plays live.
Tamara launched the woman and non-binary songwriting collective Hen Hoose, in 2020. The organisation which is funded by Creative Scotland aims to level the playing field with gender representation in the music industry for writers and producers. Hen Hoose Collective has been recognised by the John Lennon Foundation and The Big Issue for their work for gender equality. They have worked with over 700 women and marginalised genders over the last two years offering mentoring, training and collaborative songwriting projects. Their recent UK charting album The Twelve received International critical acclaim.
Tamara recently launched a sync agency and works as a sync rep for Peer Music Global.
Carolene is the founder of Swallow’s Wings Puppetry, a London based grassroot community art organisation dedicated at empowering children with a reverence for and love of African-Caribbean culture and history.
Swallow’s Wings Puppetry work with children, neurodiverse & hearing impaired communities as well as elders in their homes & community settings. We enchant, entertain, educate and build cross-generational dialogue.