Selector PRO. February 2020

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Jon Dunn (UK). Jon began his career as an independent promoter in 1989 working small venues outside London, booking acts that include Radiohead, Oasis, Pulp, Cranberries and more. In 2003, he moved to London, joining Live Nation (formally known as Clear Channel), where he took on national promotional duties, booking shows in major cities across England. Acts he picked up in this capacity that continue to work with Jon include Arcade Fire, The National, MIA, Anthony and the Johnsons and more. He began booking and curating festivals with 35,000 capacity including Latitude, The Big Chill and Electric Picnic. Jon left Live Nation in 2013 and started Parallel Lines. Currently, he promotes exclusively in London, working with acts like The National, Arcade Fire, Jungle, Glass Animals, Sharon Van Etten, St.Vincent, Future Islands--all told, more than 140 artists.
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Rick Morton (UK). Following the completion of his degree in Music and Media Management in Manchester in the summer of 2008, Rick landed his first full-time job in the music industry working as a booking agent’s assistant in London. He has since worked in an artist management company and now runs Blow-Up Live—a booking agency where he manages the live careers and strategy for a wide range of artists, including Squarepusher, The Comet is Coming, Brian Eno, !!!, Warmduscher and many more.
 
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Hannah Shogbola (UK). Hannah is a senior agent at Echo Location Talent representing a wide array of live and DJ artists worldwide. She worked previously with then-emergent hip hop artists at DatSound Music before moving into broadcasting at BBC London where she handled production duties on a wide range of radio shows--from Vanessa Feltz to Robert Elms. Her love for electronic then took Hannah from the booking team at Fabric and then onto WME—one of the largest booking agencies in the world—where she worked with everybody from Paul Kalkbrenner to MIA, to Trenmoller & Maya Jane Coles. She was then enticed to join Echo Location Talent where she heads up her own roster and is a crucial member of the events team, working with the likes of Afro Nation Portugal, Ghana & Puerto Rico.
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Jane Beese (UK) is the Head of Music at the Roundhouse where she oversees choreography and the balance of the schedule for 100+ shows per year. She manages the Paul Hamlyn Roundhouse Studios project production team and curates new festivals. Previously, Jane was the Head of Contemporary Music at the Southbank Centre where she initially coordinated and later served as director of Meltdown Festivals alongside artistic curators including David Bowie, Patti Smith, Morrissey, and David Byrne. Early in her career Jane oversaw touring schedules for talent ranging from Radiohead to Suede and the legendary New York Dolls. In 2009 she was nominated to the British Council's Cultural Leadership Programme and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the CPA and the Creative Advisory Board at Help Musicians UK. 
 
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Eugene Kibets (UA). Eugene has been a concert promoter since 2006 and is the founder and manager of the HMG (Happy Music Group) concert agency. His past projects include working with Korn, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Onyx, East 17, Red, Henry Rollins, Skin, Everlast, Monarchy, Balthazar, Fink, God Is An Astronaut, Lee Scratch Perry, Uriah Heep, Godsmack, Steven Wilson, Morcheeba, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Crystal Castles, Nothing But Thieves, Rick Wakeman, Swans and Psychic TV.
 
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Natig Ismayil (Azerbaijan). Natig set the pace for techno music in Baku with the opening of his iN Club in 2015. The first of its kind in the country, iN has been re-opened in five different locations since its launch, providing the city with an alternative to conventional local live music scene. Natig is also the owner and director of the Chain Artist Booking Agency and in 2019, he oversaw the creation of his own record label at the emerging techno dynasty—iN Records.
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Ruslan Yakupov (Kazakhstan). Ruslan lives and works in Almaty, Kazakhstan where he is co-founder and creative producer at Qazaq Indie — a community for Kazakhstan’s independent and experimental musicians. Founded in 2017, Qazaq Indie is now the largest independent music community in Kazakhstan, working largely with interdisciplinary art projects and festivals. The network boasts 20+ bands from seven cities in Kazakhstan and one in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan--Bishkek. Through Qazaq, Ruslan has organized more than 30 music concerts and experimental art performances in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In the coming year he is planning an art-festival in Kazakhstan to showcase the best in contemporary art across a broad range of disciplines and is also curating a musical programme.
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Ashot Danielyan (Uzbekistan). Ashot Danielyan is a graduate of Tashkent University where he majored in Japanese language and literature. Since 2000 he has been the frontman and songwriter for Tashkent-based indie rock band, Origami Wings. Since 2007 he has been the organizer and co-producer of the country’s sole independent rock festival—the Ilkhom Rock Fest—which has drawn more than 50 alternative rock acts from Central Asia Armenia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and the UK to perform in Uzbekistan. An artist, activist and arts-manager, since 2017 Ashot has worked in a multidisciplinary, multinational arts project promoting poetry, music, performative art, video, photography and contemporary art among Central Asian youth—the Man With a Stool Project.
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Mersel Bujak (Bosnia and Herzegovina). From creating promotional strategies for Sarajevo’s Exit Festival in 2005-2007, to working on the 2010 Libyan State Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo, to serving as main event manager at the Sarajevo Film Festival in 2015, to producing projects at the 2016 Venice Biennale of Architecture, Mersel has been active in the Sarajevo and global arts scene since the early 2000s. More recently, Mersel recognised the potential and the need for networking live music event producers in the Balkans and launched the BAM-C professional conference, now in its second year. He organises progressive live acts and his own Klabika group is recognised as a creative platform leader throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. He is the president of the Association for Development at Neocor in Sarajevo and over these past two years has concentrated his efforts on the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) Industry.
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Ermir Mamaqi (Albania). Ermir Mamaqi is celebrated in Albania for more than his 1.2M Instagram followers. He is also a famous musician and DJ, and owner of Ami Event—a one-stop event design and management company. Ami Event offers comprehensive management coverage for large- and small-scale public and private events. Everything from concerts to TV and film production, advertisement, promotional campaigns, marketing assistance, conferences, and more. The company has also produced The Albanian ODA—the largest cultural promotional event ever held in the region. Ami Event now also has spawned two offshoot companies—Mamaqi Production and E-Marketing. The former produces live music events, concerts, films, and more and the latter is involved in developing commercial communication and marketing strategies in Albania.
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Lukasz Kalebasiak (Poland). Lukasz has been a cultural journalist at Poland’s influential Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper since 1999, and worked as head of its Culture Section from 2006—2011. He has authored hundreds of reviews and editorials on the visual arts, music and theatre, his work regularly referenced in sector literature. He also worked as a reviewer on Katowice Radio from 2008—2015. Since 2012, Lukasz has been director of communications at the Katowice City of Gardens Cultural Institution where he guided the team responsible for Katowice’s successful application to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2015, the first polish city to be designated a UNESCO City of Music. In addition, he has helped organize the WOMEX 2017 and 2018 UNESCO Creative Cities Network Annual meetings and the Focal Point—Katowice UNESCO Creative City effort in 2019.
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Christian Diemer. Christian Diemer is the Head of Programme House of Europe. House of Europe is a new EU-funded programme fostering professional and creative exchange between Ukrainians and their colleagues in EU countries. The programme focuses on different professional fields: culture and creative industries, education, health, social entrepreneurship, media, and youth. Christian worked as a composer and musicologist before joining Goethe-Institut as Team Lead of House of Europe. For ten years he has been involved in transcultural and EU-related projects. During his public speech Christian will do the presentation of the programme and share opportunities that House of Europe offers for creative sector.
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Nataliia Bryl (UA). Nataliia is a program manager of Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, a state-owned institution created in 2017 in correspondence with the Law of Ukraine with aim to facilitate development of culture and arts in Ukraine, to provide favourable environment for development of intellectual and spiritual potential of individuals and society, wide access for the citizens to national cultural heritage, to support cultural diversity and integration of the Ukrainian culture into the world cultural space.
 
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Alona Dmukhovska (UA). Music Export Ukraine / Creative Europe Ukraine.
MEU is an initiative that helps local artists to build international presence and integrate Ukrainian music market into the international context. Creative Europe is the European Union's programme to support the cultural, creative and audiovisual sectors. From 2014-2020, €1.46 billion is available to support European projects with the potential to travel, reach new audiences and encourage skill sharing and development.