Brit Award winners Ezra Collective have released details of their latest initiative aiming to offer “a real life career entry and development opportunity for 5 young black women”.
Through their ‘Ezra Collective Future Foundation’, the celebrated jazz group will offer five young black women the opportunity to “learn, grow and gain real industry experience with our behind the scenes team in May 2025.”
Speaking on the foundations website, the band stated the importance of increasing representation within the music industry, saying: “Young black women are totally under-represented in the majority of behind the scenes music roles.
“A key issue is, in never seeing someone who looks or sounds like you, someone who has walked a similar path in life – a lot of young women instantly eliminate these career options as a possibility for themselves.
“Through the work of the Ezra Collective Foundation, we look to break that cycle, and help develop a new generation and community of empowered and experienced young black women.”
Multiple reports and studies support the view that there is a severe lack of racial representation within the music industry, both in entry-level positions and executive roles.
The 2022 UK Music Diversity Report found that there had been a ‘decrease in diverse ethnicity employees in entry-level positions’, falling from 34.6% in 2020 to 23.6% in 2022.
It has also been proven to be a problem across the pond, as The University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that among 4,060 executives across 119 companies, white male executives outnumbered black women by 17.7 to one.
Dr Stacy L Smith, author of the Annenberg report, said: “Under-represented and black artists are dominating the charts, but the C-suite (executive level) is a ‘diversity desert.”
She continued: “The profile of top artists may give some in the industry the illusion that music is an inclusive business, but the numbers at the top tell a different story.”
Through this latest initiative, Ezra Collective aim to tackle this problem and “sidestep the assumption that in order to even get a first foot in the door, you need to have endless experience, contacts, training and/or a degree.”
They are offering opportunities in numerous roles including artist management, tour and production management, front of house/live sound, band leadership and backline technician.
The jazz quintet are one of the most exciting and fastest rising acts in British music today. They recently had the honour of closing the 2025 Brit Awards alongside Jorja Smith, after winning the award for ‘Group of The Year’ earlier in the night. Check out what mxdwn.co.uk had to say about the awards night here.
If you’re an 18+ year old black woman available to commit to 10 days of work between 15th-25th May then head to the Ezra Collective Foundation website to find more information. Applications are open from now until April 11th, you can apply here or email foundation@ezracollective.com if you have any questions.
