Culture
07 Sep 21

Denmark to open its first DJ academy for women and gender minorities

The academy, run by Future Female Sounds, will reserve 20 per cent of its capacity for marginalised and underprivileged youth.

Denmark is set to debut the nation's first DJ Academy for women, non-binary people and gender minorities this October.

Future Female Sounds will be launching a DJ academy in Copenhagen focused on artists who identify as female, non-binary or another gender minority.

After training nearly 500 new female, non-binary, and gender minority DJs in several countries across continents, Future Female Sounds' goal of building an Academy with a 3-month long educational graduating course is coming to fruition.

Training will consist of in-person workshops, mentoring and industry talks, delivered through Danish. Each semester will be three months long and conclude with a live performance at a local venue.

The free training programmes will begin in October, taking place in the Nørrebro district of the Danish capital. The Academy has promised to reserve 20 per cent of its capacity for marginalised and underprivileged youth from the area, supported by the non-profit organisation Tuborgfondet.

“We’re very excited to have the opportunity to develop talent through the DJ Academy, where we will also be able to connect them directly to the music industry, to support their careers long-term,” Tia Korpe, DJ Academy Director commented.

The Tuborg Foundation, or Tuborgfondet, have supported the organisation since they opened in 2017, and have given them over 1.7million DKK (€200,000) to help them launch the academy.

“The donation from Tuborgfondet makes it possible to scale our work with a dedicated focus on facilitating and highlighting even more women and gender minority talent,” Korpe stated.

The Academy’s launch precedes the European Female DJ Summit next June, which will gather artists and industry professionals from EU countries for the purposes of boosting talent, networking and training up industry-relevant skills.

It will be held in partnership with female:pressure and SheSaidSo, and is co-funded by The European Union.

“The aim of the summit is to create a strong and supportive network within the European music industry, advocating for change in the structural gender inequality,” wrote a description of the event.

For more information, visit futurefemalesounds.org.