Alex Carr is the Contemporary Music Programmer for the Southbank Centre in London. A role that involves working across all forms of music. Working on bespoke festivals like Meltdown, to building shows and curated events for international artists through to local community collectives, platforming the incredible talent London and the wider UK has to offer.

Alongside her role at Southbank Alex also works as a Programmer for Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Through her work promoting diversity within Jazz and wider genres Alex became the new programmer for the PAC venue in 2023.

Alex’s path into the music industry started in 2020 when she created multi award winning live music platform Amplify Sounds, to support and promote original artists from the Midlands.  In 2022 Amplify Sounds was recognised by the Birmingham Music Awards as ‘Best Music Community Project’ and ‘Best Promotor’.  Over its first two years the organisation helped over 80 musicians with live performance opportunities both on Amplify Sounds and wider independent platforms, across the UK from the 2022 Commonwealth Games, Mostly Jazz Festival, MADE Festival to the British Grand Prix.  

February 2022 Alex became the Programme Producer for Jazz & Emerging Talent for B:Music, the charity responsible for Birmingham’s Town Hall and Symphony Hall.  This role involved the curation of the Jazz programme across both venues. Here she passionately worked to improve the representation of musicians on gender, race, age across programme.  Alongside this she consistently found ways in which to develop talent and professionalise artists through mentoring, performance and commission opportunities.

Alex is also a freelance radio broadcaster with specialist shows on Jazz FM & BBC West Midlands and New Style Radio. She uses her platform to celebrate musicians and arts organisations from across the regions and is widely known as a key supporter of talent from the Midlands and surrounding areas.

Alex is our Trustee Champion for Talent Development.