MA Music Business Student, Giulia Fontana, has been awarded the 2021 Focusrite bursary.
Most artists we talk to, tell us about how they knew they wanted to be an artist from a young age and spent their whole life filled with the confidence to follow that dream. However, Giulia isn’t like most artists. Whilst she was filled with a love for music, she instead chose to study Foreign Languages at university with the hopes to travel and engage with different cultures.
Then one day on a whim, Giulia decided to start a music project in her university bedroom and so HÅN was born. Unsure what to do next, she sent the tracks to multiple Italian labels who slowly began to release her tracks. Soon her project gained enough traction to utilise her university degree, travel across Europe and over to America to play at festivals such as Primavera Sound and SXSW.
For the most part, Giulia has had to act as her own manager which has inspired her to broaden her understanding of the business side. That’s how we have come to know her here at Tileyard Education. We have seen Giulia’s curiosity and drive first-hand which has led to our friends over at Focusrite taking a real interest in her career and awarding her their bursary.
Founded in 1985 by Rupert Neve, Focusrite began by building equipment for George Martin (commonly known as the fifth Beatle). Ever since, they have become synonymous with high quality studio consoles. However, as well as being friend of Tileyard, Focusrite are the friends of every up and coming artist out there.
Their affordable Scarlett range has helped to democratise music and allow artists to set up near professional standard home studios. Without Focusrite we wouldn’t have artists such as HÅN (Giulia) being able to delve into their curiosity and begin writing music in university bedrooms.
Focusrite’s commitment to supporting young artists resulted in us building a partnership over the past few years and setting up the Focusrite busary award. Focusrite have awarded Guilia with a bespoke package of equipment worth £3000, a visit to their HQ, mentorship and an artist page on their website. With this award we hope to see Giulia continue to follow her curiosity and with it achieve her many goals.
