Staff Spotlight - Ewan East

Welcome to SoundLincs Staff Spotlight, where each month we shine the light on one of our incredible staff and volunteers. This month we shine spotlight on Ewan, our Project Portfolio Manager, who oversees the delivery across a wide range of SoundLincs’ music programmes.

1. What is your role at SoundLincs and what does that involve?

My role at SoundLincs is the Project Portfolio Manager, overseeing all of the charity's many projects! I love this role as I get to be involved in several sides of the charity, including the day to day organisation of groups and our 1-to-1 referrals, designing and implementing our projects, and strategically planning future projects.

Alongside the organisation of projects I also undertake the evaluations, drawing on my academic experience to analyse and reflect the amazing impact our work has had. This has involved really exciting opportunities such as developing new evaluation methods and presenting our findings to important stakeholders both regionally and nationally.

2. Why is music important to you?

Music has always been my outlet, whether emotionally, creatively, or socially. I was fortunate to try different instruments throughout my upbringing, including the drums, guitar, and flute, before settling on the piano as my main instrument of choice. However, I always struggled with reading sheet music and lost interest in playing the typical ‘classical’ music that are expected through the grade systems. It was at this moment that I started exploring the relationship between electronic music and composition, using the piano as an outlet to write music. This has led me to branch both classical music and electronic music, enjoying writing through both genres.

Now focusing on contemporary classical music as my main outlet, music has provided a great opportunity for me to create musical representations of mental health, and also explore greater opportunities for audiences to interact with classical music through my PhD research.

3. Tell us a bit about your life outside of SoundLincs.

Outside of SoundLincs I spend most of my time with my wife and son! Whilst we enjoy the occasional trip out to Daisy Made on our bikes, or trip out for food, we also spend a lot of our time at home, painting the house or being creative ourselves. At the moment I’ve been keeping myself busy, finishing my PhD in Music Composition and finding opportunities to be involved in careers mentoring or supporting music initiatives.

4. What’s one piece of advice, insight, or inspiration you’d like to share with our community?

Being creative doesn’t have to lead to a career! There’s so much emphasis on any passion turning into something that you can sustain a career from, but this can completely drain the fun out of the creativity you are doing. I’ve always had the ambition of having music involved in my career some way, but project management is a long distance from being a composer! However, the impact I see everyday through this role would far outweigh what I imagine a career just as a composer would be. Find your passion and then build your life around it where you can!