The F-List for Music has announced that award-winning artist Hannah Peel is to be its new president.
Peel succeeds classical composer Professor Shirley J Thompson, who was preceded by Brix Smith and Anoushka Shankar. The presidential role is an honorary role that is designed to help musicians and raise awareness of the work of The F-List for Music.
The F-List for Music was set up in the midst of the pandemic as a support network for women and non-binary musicians. Despite repeated research and statistics demonstrating need this is the only national-wide organisation supporting women and gender diverse musicians across all genres of music in the UK.
Peel is an artist, composer, producer and radio presenter. Her solo record career includes the shortlisted 2021 Mercury Music Prize album, Fir Wave; Awake But Always Dreaming, and the space-themed Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia, scored for synthesisers and a 30 piece colliery brass band.
Following her Emmy-nominated score for Game Of Thrones: The Last Watch, her soundtrack for TV thriller, The Deceived won a 2022 Royal Television Society NI award and the Music Producer’s Guild’s best ‘Original Score Recording of 2021’. This year Hannah won the Best Television Soundtrack category in The Ivor Novello Awards for The Midwich Cuckoos. A regular collaborator with Paul Weller, she contributed arrangements to his no.1 album's On Sunset and Fat Pop and last year released The Unfolding with Paraorchestra, the world's only disabled and non-disabled integrated orchestra which went straight to No.1 in the UK Classical Charts.
“I am proud to be the next President for The F-list,” said Peel. “From starting out as a session musician to producing my own records, composing for orchestras and scoring for film and TV - I am extremely passionate about the work that The F-list carries out, and how essential it is for our UK music industry.
“It is not an easy industry to navigate and there is no secret formula to ‘success’, however, knowing that there is a talented and dedicated community, not only collating our talents and skills, but helping make connections and shouting about our assets to the world is vitally important.
“There are now more female higher-profile players leading us as role models than ever before, but shocking statistics are still showing a major disparity between the gender gap in music. Highlighting those musicians behind the scenes, who also produce, engineer, orchestrate, conduct… The F-list continues to positively build upon and endorse a supportive place that reflects our rich diversity. It is an honour to represent this wealth of British talent.”
The F-List for Music aims to help UK women and gender diverse musicians overcome structural barriers and sustain their music careers for longer. Since forming three years ago, the not-for-profit organisation, run mainly through volunteers and a board of 12 women from across music, has organised online events for over 500 participants, taken 28 women through its flagship ‘Culture of Belonging’ producer training programme at Miloco Studios, formed partnerships with important industry organisations and worked with numerous events and festivals helping them source diverse talent, such as Under the Stars, Primadonna and Out and Wild.
It also gives visibility to underrepresented talent through its website, playlists and social media channels, and by running the online directory – an ever-expanding community now with over 6,000 musicians featuring musicians, songwriters, and composers, bands and groups from every genre of music and enables them to be found and booked for professional opportunities.
As more women upload their music and information onto the site it keeps growing ‘like a wiki for UK female musicians’, serving as a resource for gig promoters, commissioners, labels, other musicians, and journalists who wish to find diverse musicians.
Find out more about The F-List for Music here.
You can read Headliner's interview with Peel on scoring Game of Thrones here. You can also read our interview with The F-List founder Vick Bain and former president Brix Smith here.