What Is Sunderland Music City?

The establishment of our city's own Music Office creates an initial point of contact between musicians, people involved in the music industry, and official and institutional bodies within the city, providing support and enabling connections between those within the industry, the cultural sector, and the wider city. 

We’re delighted to have appointed Marty Longstaff and Frankie Francis as our new Sunderland Music City Music Officers. 

Frankie will be responsible for developing Sunderland’s relationship with the UK’s national music industry, and with organisations such as Sunderland City Council, the North East Combined Authority, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. He will help develop a series of gigs, concerts, and events, building on what is already a growing musical programme in the city.  

Marty Longstaff is a singer, songwriter, musician, and qualified teacher from Sunderland. Marty will focus on talent development, working with citywide educational organisations and national programmes to develop new and emerging talent on Wearside. Marty is dedicated to helping the city’s emerging and established musicians achieve their aims, and for them to be an inspiration to the next generation. 

Undertaken by our Music Officers, Frankie Francis and Marty Longstaff, this will paint a comprehensive picture of the local music industry. We will map Sunderland’s current music provision, reviewing and understanding what is needed for music in the City to thrive. 

We'll establish a Music City Advisory Board, drawn from key stakeholders in the music industry and broader music sector at all levels and from all music genres in the city.  The Board will support and oversee the work of the Music Office to develop and plan initiatives and help with their delivery by using the Board members’ expertise and networks. 

Produced by the Music City Office in conjunction with stakeholders and agreed by the Music City Advisory Board, our Music City Strategy will communicate our policies, initiatives and the measurable outcomes we hope to achieve.

The Music City Office will work with colleagues at the University of Sunderland to research and measure the social and economic impact of music in the city and to provide a benchmark for our work. 

We will create a calendar of annual Sunderland Music City events to complement the incredible calendar of music already in place. Our first event annual event is Sunderland Music City Roots, our grassroots and emerging talent showcase at The Fire Station in Sunderland.

The Music Cities Network, founded in 2016 by Hamburg Music Business Association (IMH) and consultancy Sound Diplomacy, currently includes member cities Aarhus, Bergen, Berlin, Gothenburg, Groningen, Hamburg, Manchester, Nantes, Reykjavik, and Sydney. The Music Cities Network encourages cooperation between member cities to enhance artist, business, and city development through the growth of the music sector.  

The Music Cities Network focuses on joint project development, shaping music policies through collaborative research, networking, knowledge exchange and mutual support and advice. It is part of an increasingly influential group of places that put music at the heart of their plans for development and we want Sunderland to be part of this network of Music Cities.