An AirBnB for classical music venues and arts spaces is being launched

1 July 2021, 14:40 | Updated: 2 July 2021, 08:06

Tutti curates listings of music, arts and studio spaces so that you can hire them through one handy AirBnB-esque platform. We approve.

We can ‘discover local gems, contact spaces in seconds, and save time and money’, a new venue-hire website Tutti promises.

Essentially an AirBnB for classical music and arts venues, Tutti gathers together listings of spaces for hire, for music, theatre, dance, film and TV, and photography.

At a time when we’ve all been so starved of live music and other in-person experiences (thank you, COVID-19), a clever idea to get spaces booked and welcoming audiences slowly back again sounds pretty great to us.

It’s the brainchild of Gabriel Isserlis, the son of star cellist Steven Isserlis, and aims to foster an already growing community, connecting performers and then audiences to the right spaces for their art.

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“We're very early in our journey (we're still just running an open Beta), but we have amazing spaces available all across London, and we’re constantly unlocking amazing unknown spaces for artists to create in; especially important after this past year,” Isserlis tell Classic FM.

There are already 900 venues signed up and listed on the website, and it also has a handy “Not finding what you need?” feature which invites you to share your requirements with Tutti in case they can find in-demand venues and spaces to add.

So, where did it all start?

“Tutti was born as an amalgamation of my personal experience. I grew up in a ridiculously music-centric family, which both solidified my love of music and helped me realise I did not want to follow directly in my father's footsteps as a cellist. (I play occasionally for fun),” Isserlis tells us.

“After making that choice I completed degrees in Film & IT, dabbled in theatre, and worked in photography. Experiencing and hearing the countless frustrations of professionals in each field, combined with my understanding of technology, led to my brain being filled with countless ways technology could help the creative industries better than they do today. I shared those ideas with a lot of people.”

The standout most in-demand idea, Isserlis confides, was “an Airbnb for creative spaces”.

It’s free to register and create a listing, and London is the business’ focus at the moment, but there are plans afoot to expand beyond the M25. The spaces up for hire range from people’s living rooms with quality pianos for solo practice sessions, to large spaces for filming – and everything in between: schools, military venues, clubs, community centres, churches... the list goes on.

There are even two jazz clubs, Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston and Toulouse Lautrec in Kennington (pictured above), available to hire if they don’t have shows on.

“These two venues have seen so many amazing people pass through their doors, and their spaces are so filled with charm and history, they’re great places to hire for any creative use,” Isserlis says.

Isserlis pressed ‘go’ on this idea back in 2019, but like many people, was forced by coronavirus to pause.

“COVID stopped us in our tracks,” the entrepreneur says. “In 2020, we were able to build our own website, though, and followed the strong belief that people would be desperate to find and book spaces when restrictions lift.”

“We’re glad to have been proven right – we started shouting about Tutti again in March of this year and our numbers have been growing quickly. Yesterday, we concluded our best month ever, and there is so much to look forward to over the coming months and years.”

So, what’s next? “As we took the time to build our technology from the ground up in 2020, our system is only going to get better and better each month. More and more spaces are coming on board, and we’re confident we’ll shoot past 1,000 in July,” Isserlis shares. “And of course, there’s the promise of restrictions fully lifting ahead, which will only make people more able to use our service.”

Lots to look forward to.

Tutti will be officially launched in 2022. Visit www.tutti.space to find out more.