The Pop Collective

Cardiff University School of Music has added a new ensemble to our offering, with the Popular Music Collective.

Beginning in September, the Pop Collective, will be directed by Cardiff-based musician Maddie Jones.

Performing as MADI, Maddie is a singer, songwriter, producer, guitarist, pianist, composer, musical director, mentor, teacher, and content creator.

She has considerable experience mentoring young musicians, notably through the Forté Project, and has garnered multiple awards for her work as a performer herself. She has experience with a broad stylistic spectrum.

The Pop Collective will offer exciting new ensemble opportunities both to students who have expertise in popular genres and also ones with a love for the music and a desire to try something new. It will also offer valuable experience students with an interest in production techniques. It builds on the School of Music’s module offerings in popular music studies and musicology, studio techniques, ethnomusicology, and theory and analysis.

The Pop Collective will add to our collection of School ensembles, which already cover a broad range of genres, including Classical choirs, orchestras and other ensembles, a jazz ensemble, Indonesian gamelan ensemble and a West African drumming ensemble.

Director of Performance, Dr Keith Chapin, said of the new ensemble: “The School of Music’s professionally led ensembles have always been a core part of our students’ education. Each one gives students different experiences, not only in terms of repertoire and musical styles, but perhaps even more importantly in terms of ways of interacting with each other musically.

“The Popular Music Collective will offer students new opportunities in both respects. Given her range of talents, Maddie Jones is ideally positioned both to challenge students with experience in bands and to introduce students without such experience to new ways of performing and producing music.”

Speaking of her appointment, Maddie Jones said: “When I first heard about the new Pop Collective, my first thought was that I wished it had existed in my university when I was studying.

“I’m excited to work with the students and build the ensemble to be something that really caters to their interests, but also sets them up for the world of being a freelance musician beyond university, should they choose to.

“Live events are the lifeblood of our industry, so it’ll be a great experience to design performances, and I’m very keen to encourage the students to hone the skills that will support them in the world of live performance, such as song writing, recording, and videography.”