Electric Dreams opens professional development program for female + GNC composers in Victoria

Electric Dreams is offering a program of professional development aimed at supporting and empowering female and GNC composers in the Australian creative industry.

This program is offered to outstanding Victorian-based composers in 2018. The program will be built around a mentorship with the composers at Electric Dreams and will deliver a suite of resources including studio space, instruments, one-on-one time with key Electric Dreams staff, internship and creative development opportunities.

Says Cornel Wilczek, composer and founder of Electric Dreams: “As we continue to grow and seek new talent, the underrepresentation of female and GNC composers is painfully obvious in the music advertising industry. Many fabulous composers that we work with in music production see the advertising world as a male-dominated and intimidating area of music production. But in our 10 years of experience we’ve learnt a lot, and we would love to share our knowledge in not only music-making, but also in navigating the industry.”

Says Jeanette Little, executive producer: “Women composers offer a creative voice and perspective different from men. This program offers a rare opportunity to work alongside some of the most experienced composers in the country and is a great career injection.”

Many non-cis male composers haven’t had a chance to develop due to a lack of opportunity and representation. One of the biggest battles our industry faces is gender inequality; female and GNC composers are treated less seriously due to their gender and this treatment carries through to the advertising industry. As reported in The Guardian: “In 2008, just 3.6% of the world’s creative directors were female. Since then it has tripled to 11%. […] Females make 85% of all purchasing decisions, yet are woefully underrepresented in creative jobs in advertising.”

It is only in the last couple of decades that female composers have had a chance to emerge. There have been a number of important shifts in response to statistics and reports on gender inequality (statistics and reports that, it should be noted, still fail to include a lot of people). For example, Australian performing rights organisation APRA AMCOS has recently implemented measures to address the imbalance in its funding and membership to move towards gender parity.

Founded by Wilczek in 2009, Electric Dreams is an award-winning music studio with a talented collective of composers and producers who write music for advertising, television, games and film. Electric Dreams’ composers-in-residence and ever-growing extended family of artists bring unique strengths and perspectives to their work. It is Electric Dreams’ integrated approach that defines it, allowing it to produce distinctive composition, production and sound design for a diverse range of media.

Electric Dreams has produced original music for over 540 ads for brands globally. Awards include Cannes Lions, LIA and Award Awards.

For film and TV, it has produced music for the award-winning Netflix TV series Glitch, ABC TV’s Nowhere Boys, and the documentary Chasing Asylum by Oscar-winning filmmaker Eva Orner.

How to apply

Composers of all genres are encouraged to apply. Applicants should send an expression of interest, their CV and a portfolio of works and/or recordings to studio@electricdreams.co.

The program will offer one-on-one time with Electric Dreams’ composers and studio access to work on music for TV, film and advertising, as well as insight into management, client communications and new business development.

(Pictured: Mark Mitchell, Leyla Varela, Jeanette Little, Cornel Wilczek)