Yamaha Music London 2023 ambassadors discuss their YML experience

Indie/pop artist Bertie Green, pop artist Beth Keeping and soulful UK singer-songwriter (and co-founder of Women in Jazz) Nina Fine have spoken to Headliner about their experiences since being announced as the 2023 ambassadors for Yamaha Music London.

Now, Yamaha Music London and Headliner are offering an exciting opportunity for emerging solo artists and duos in the UK whereby three more winners will become the 2024 ambassadors for Yamaha’s unique flagship UK store in London. The winning artists will get to kickstart their music careers by representing a truly world-class destination for musicians of all abilities and ages.

The ambassadorship will provide the winning emerging artists with access to Yamaha's extensive collection of award-winning instruments for a year, the chance to perform at some of London's best venues (including Yamaha's Soho-based music store) and receive exclusive mentorship in developing their future success as artists.

The three winners will also benefit from a professional recording session at Headliner HQ's studio, an appearance on the Headliner Radio music podcast, an editorial profile in Headliner, three months of PR support, mentoring sessions, and social media support via shares across Yamaha Music London and Headliner’s social media pages.

A shortlist will be invited to perform at a live music showcase across two semi-finals (held on 23 November and 30 November), leading towards the final in front of Headliner music industry judges at Yamaha Music London, Soho London on 7 December.

Current Yamaha Music London ambassador, Nina Fine, says being offered the ambassadorship was a “beautiful experience.”

“When you’re an independent artist you’re essentially doing so many different roles within a career, and it can be quite lonely,” she adds. “I’m very lucky in that I've got people in the jazz and women in music communities, but there’s something about those moments where you have a response from a crowd and from people who are very involved in music saying ‘hey, we resonate with this’. On that level it was so heart warming and soul filling, and just really precious.”

Yamaha has in fact been a part of Fine’s musical journey since she was a child, learning the piano on a Yamaha upright that her father bought for the house.

“I then bought my first stage piano from Yamaha, and now I’ve been gifted the CP88,” she elaborates. “I’m not the most technological performer; I’ve explored instruments previously but not really on the electronic side. With the CP88 you can blend sounds. It’s so user friendly, and being able to layer beautiful strings or mellow pads on top of piano sounds, and then even have a rhythmic throb happening, just creates these expansive layers that are so exciting. Either it’s ideas in my head that I'm now able to explore, or it’s discovering through playfulness and experimenting that I end up with something great.”

Since being awarded the ambassadorship, Fine has been busy building her live sound, preparing demos for an EP, and working out who she wants to work with for her next release.

“I also recently went to a music residential, called Jaminaround, and that gave me a lot of fire,” she tells Headliner. “So in the coming year I want to release recorded material, give a massive shout out to everyone involved, and get things ready on the live side. I’ve got quite a lot of gigs coming up at the end of September and the start of October.”

And talking of gigs, Yamaha Music London presented this year’s ambassadors with some incredible opportunities. Fine was invited to play at London’s The Ned, which pushed her to create a band around her: “That broke through a wall for me in a really good way,” she says.

“One of my favourite things has been performing with Nina Fine at the Boisdale Jazz Club for International Women's Day,” adds YML ambassador Beth Keeping. “That was a really cool experience and the Yamaha Music London team has been so welcoming, warm and supportive. I got a lovely guitar and have just received a really nice stage keyboard which I’m going to do my first gig on in a couple weeks, which I’m really excited about.”

Keeping admits she was quite shocked upon being initially awarded the ambassadorship for 2023:

“The final was such an incredible experience; to be able to perform my songs on that piano in front of the judges just made me feel very encouraged that I’m doing the right thing in my music career,” she says. “This year I’ve mostly been writing and recording, and trying to work out what I’m doing next. I released a new song a couple of weeks ago called Bitter, and I’ve got a lot of other songs in the works coming out soon.”

Indie pop artist Bertie Green, the third YML ambassador for 2023, is excited and grateful to have been brought on as part of the Yamaha Music UK Family.

“They have been supportive, encouraging and a pleasure to work with,” he tells Headliner. “This year, with the support of Yamaha Music UK, I sold out my first headline show, garnered over 100,000 streams and played over 50 shows across four different countries. It's been amazing.

Find out how to enter to be the next Yamaha Music London ambassador here.