Each year we invite established professionals, subject experts, artists and creatives from across the UK to form part of the independent Jury that will select this year’s Shortlisted Artists and Fellow.
We are thrilled to share that the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2026 for Music Jury Members are:
Suzy Klein
Suzy Klein is responsible for commissioning all arts and classical music content for BBC television channels and iPlayer.
She oversees a wide range of programmes, from returning favourites such as Extraordinary Portraits, Fake or Fortune, Hidden Treasure of the National Trust and the BAFTA Award winning series Rob & Rylan’s Grand Tour to premium series and boxsets including Rise of a Genius and Civilisations.
Classical music makes up a large proportion of Suzy’s brief, including commissioning The Proms for TV and events including Cardiff Singer of the World and BBC Young Musician. Working with the BBC’s performing groups, her team have created a new series on BBC Four – Inside Classical – bringing the orchestras to TV viewers throughout the year. Recent classical music and performance programmes include The Read, Dance Passion and Big Night of Musicals by the National Lottery.
Before joining BBC commissioning, Suzy was a presenter on TV and radio, specialising in music and arts, and previously spent more than a decade working in factual TV production.
Tom Service
Tom Service presents the Saturday Morning programme and the New Music Show for BBC Radio 3, where he wrote and presented 250 editions of The Listening Service, and hosted Music Matters from 2003. His writing about music is at theguardian.com, he was Gresham Professor of Music from 2018-19, and Guest Artistic Director of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2005. He has made films for the BBC about composers from Mozart to Saariaho, and has been part of the radio and TV coverage of the BBC Proms for more than twenty years. His books include Music as Alchemy: Journeys with Great Conductors and their Orchestras, and Full of Noises, interviews with the composer Thomas Adès.
Rakhi Singh
Rakhi Singh is a violinist, creative director and composer based in Manchester.
As a solo artist she released her 2023 debut solo album ‘Purnima’ on Bang on a Can’s Cantaloupe Music label but has also released a number of records on Bedroom Community, two albums as curator/director of Manchester Collective and her debut composition/production EP ‘Quarry’.
She has performed in many major venues and festivals around Europe, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg; Concertgebouw Amsterdam; National Concert Hall Dublin; Funkhaus Berlin; Kings Place London; Cheltenham Festival; Supersonic; Bach Thuringen; Ludwigsburg Festival, Kilkenny Festival and Walden Festival. Her artistic life is split into many different roles – performing, recording, collaboration, mentoring and creatively directing.
As a creative director she made a film for the Royal Opera House starring Blackhaine, and has devised large scale works for Manchester Collective and the Southbank Centre, working with Chris Watson and Carlos Casas on an immersive experience of Michael Gordon’s Weather. Designing a light installation for a tour of Rothko Chapel, the iconic piece by Morton Feldman and most recently creating Refractions – a collaboration with British producer Clark and choreographer Melanie Lane for Multitudes Festival 2025 at The Southbank Centre.
As a collaborative composer she has written a number of works with Vessel/Sebastian Gainsborough, NYX Electronic Drone Choir, Laura Cannell, Simmy Singh and Go-go Penguin. She is often heard on film sound tracks, live on Radio 3 and on the records of Clark, Fever Ray, Able Selaocoe, Olivia Chaney, Vessel and Hania Rani.
In 2016 she co-founded Manchester Collective who perform over 50 concerts a year nationally and internationally and work with a huge variety of artists from many different genres. They are resident at the Southbank Centre London.
She thrives on the sharing of artistic languages and creating safe and explorative spaces for artists. This has led her into education and mentoring. After leading a group for 2 years at the RAM she is currently running Manchester Collective Studio at the RNCM and running a residency for Warp Records, working intensively for a week with 3 producers on the space between electronic and acoustic music, culminating in a performance in Unsound and the Southbank.
Through her curating she continues to endeavour to bring important music to the fore and as a soloist and with the Collective she has premiered over 30 new works over the last 10 years.
Born to an English mother and Indian father in rural Wales, Rakhi’s upbringing was influenced by many different cultures and traditions.
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The Arts Foundation Futures Awards support the UK’s most promising artists and creatives at a pivotal moment in their careers with £20,000 unconditional Fellowships.
The Music Award Shortlist will be revealed in January 2026, and the recipient of the £20,000 Fellowship will be announced at a live Award Ceremony in February 2026, with all Shortlisted Artists each awarded £1,000.
The Music Award is supported by The David Collins Foundation.
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