Forté Project x PPL has returned for its third year in 2026, giving emerging musicians in Wales access to recording sessions, professional experience and career support.
Delivered by Beacons Cymru with support through PPL Giving, the programme combines recording and performance opportunities with mentoring, industry guidance and wellbeing support.
Access to studio experience
For aspiring session players, securing studio work can depend on experience and professional contacts. The programme aims to help participants develop those connections and pursue careers within Wales.
Anastassia Svets, Project Officer at Beacons Cymru, identified a shortage of accessible routes into these roles:
Session work, production, studio engineering, collaborative songwriting: these are extremely important areas of the music industry, and unfortunately currently there’s a lack of beginner-friendly spaces to learn and gain expertise.
Paid recording work in 2025
The 2025 programme ran from April to October, bringing together the following participants to write and record original music:
- 20 aspiring session musicians
- Three producers
- Three artists
Workshops, development sessions, rehearsals and studio recordings gave participants experience across the recording process alongside established professionals. Musicians received professional session fees for their recording work.
One participant highlighted the value of meeting other musicians and learning in the studio:
“I think meeting people was one of the most valuable parts of this project as so much about being a musician is about networking. It was also brilliant to get studio experience and to get to learn on the job. It was great that [the engineer] was so happy to talk about things and answer questions while in the studio too.”
The 2026 recording schedule
The programme returned in 2026 with its largest cohort to date. An open selection process chose 18 session musicians and three producers.
A further comment outlined the challenge of entering collaborative recording work:
“From an artist’s perspective, [for session musicians] it’s so important to get your foot in the door and understand how to work collaboratively with the artist and producer and sound engineer, because it’s hard to know where to start.”
Rehearsal and arrangement sessions took place in June and July, followed by recording in August. Producers are mixing and mastering the final tracks during September and October.
