Sofi Nowell is a freelance Creative Producer supporting interdisciplinary practice and artist development across music and dance. With 20 years experience in the arts, she enjoys working with experimental and electronic music, and on projects that explore new ways of presenting performance.

Between 2021-24 Sofi led the Snape Residencies programme at Britten Pears Arts in Suffolk. During her time there she supported hundreds of artists to develop their practice through bespoke week-long residencies. Artists that came through the programme under her leadership include BULLYACHE, Explore Ensemble, Magnus Westwell, Nabihah Iqbal, Luke Abbott, Stick in the Wheel, and Idrîsî Ensemble. She programmed and commissioned works for Festival of New and Aldeburgh Festival, including collaborative projects by The Marian Consort and Joanna Ward, Lotte Betts-Dean and Purple Taiko, and Xhosa Cole and Mark Sanders.

Previously she headed up international touring at Black Acre in Bristol, working with a roster of artists including Alfa Mist, Loraine James and Kampire. Committed to improving inclusivity in the industry, in 2020 she created Black Acre Pathways, a year-long programme funded by Youth Music’s Incubator Fund which supported 18-25s to develop a career in the music business.

In 2021 she completed an MA in Arts Management at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, which piqued her interest in accessibility in the arts. She is proud to have worked with Hijinx Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre and Victor Esses as a live captioner for digital performance. She has extensive experience fundraising across trusts, foundations and public funding, including as an Access Support Worker, and in marketing, PR and audience development.

Sofi began her career as a young promoter, then programmer and booking agent in Bristol’s DIY music scene, placing ambitious live performance in unusual spaces with artists including Four Tet, Stephen O’Malley, The Bug, Haxan Cloak, Digital Mystikz, Aluk Todolo, dälek, and Pharmakon. She has been a panellist for artist development initiatives Saffron Records, Jerwood Jazz Encounters and Sounding Change, and is particularly interested in intersectionality, non-traditional routes into the arts, and making space for people to experiment and take risks.

She lives in West Scotland with her partner and young son.