Speaking Of The Arts

Hi everyone and welcome to speaking of the arts. Today’s episode will be different from our usual format of interviewing a key promoter, presenter, agent, artist or manager. I’m going to be talking about something we’ve created internally here called Artist Scorecards. If you go to our website at http://www.epsteinco.com, you will see a tab at the top appropriately labeled Artist Scorecards, where you can download one and follow along. This is a tool we came up with to help artists think about their thinking, as it relates to 7 core aspects of their career and I thought it would be a good idea to describe how the tool works. So, if you are looking at the card you will see we’ve listed each one of these aspects as a mindset including Touring, Recording, Technology, Fan Management, Management, Business, and Marketing. This is not to say that these are the only mindsets which an artist needs to think about, but rather, what are arguably some of the most important. This tool is designed to give you, the artist,

Welcome to the 40th Episode of Speaking of the Arts! Today we are featuring Tim Wilson. Tim is the Executive Director of the Western Arts Alliance, or WAA as it is commonly known. Tim has led the arts service organization and performing arts market based in Portland, OR for more than 20 years. I had the opportunity to meet Tim at this years WAA conference and he kindly agreed to be on the show. We talk about all sorts of things including the pros and cons of the exhibition hall model, new ideas for how to improve the overall conference experience, and where Tim sees the future of the conference headed. I learned a lot speaking with Tim and I hope you find this as insightful as I did. Thank you guys for your continued support and please enjoy my conversation with Tim.

Today’s episode is actually a live recording from the recent Arts Midwest conference in Indianapolis. I led a session on podcasting and the arts and I was joined by two experienced podcasters including Colleen Cook and Trevor St. Aubin. We cover all sorts of great topics such as why should an arts organization do a podcast in the first place, what are the technical aspects involved with producing a podcast, how to think about podcast content, and marketing your podcast. Colleen and Trevor, if you guys are listening, thank you so much for your participation in the event, I learned a lot from speaking with you both and I hope we can all connect again soon. So, without further ado, here is my recent session from the 2018 Arts Midwest conference. I hope you enjoy.

I could not be more excited to share this episode with you. I had the opportunity to speak with Jamie Marguiles today who is the label director at GroundUP Music. GroundUP is known for releasing incredible music from groups like Snarky Puppy, Bokante, Banda Magda, and so many more. I wanted to hear from Jamie all about how she and her team approach social media. If you haven’t checked out GroundUP music on Instagram or Facebook you are missing out. They do a fantastic job rolling out killer content each day and have developed a very loyal fan base. In our conversation, we cover all sorts of useful things like how to manage a content schedule, best practices for Facebook and Instagram and why Instagram is the best platform for musicians now. We talk about ways to effectively promote tour dates through each platform and much more. Here are just a few of the themes we cover: *How to manage social media content and plan content schedules in advance *Best practices for Facebook and Instagram *Killer tips for how

"What are presenters saying?" This is the question displayed on the cover of our new artist data books for the 2019-2020 season. We are taking a look under the hood here at our agency and will be talking about new artists projects for the 2019-2020 fine arts booking season. You will learn about which artists are doing what, when they are available, and much more. Here to talk with me is Matt Morrell, our East Coast booking agent. Matt also books our artists in Asia and South America. One of our goals this year was to produce an artist brochure that presenters will hopefully find very useful and not simply discard at the conference hotels. So what is different about it this year? For starters, we are calling these our artist data books. We’ve included artist gross ticket sales information, configurations, availability, and select touring history so people can see who else is booking these artists. There are also no press quotes and instead we’ve included testimonial from presenters who have previously book

Is the current performing arts system broken? How is the digital revolution affecting the way we approach our industry? What are traditional performing arts centers doing to try and reach younger audiences? Why do performing arts centers continue to spend significant resources on printed brochures? Are the annual booking conferences even necessary? These questions, and more, on today’s episode of Speaking of the Arts. Hi everyone this is Mike Epstein and joining me today are two veterans of the industry – Jeremy Ganter, Associate Executive Director and Director of Programming at the Robert and Margrit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts at UC Davis and the esteemed and highly experienced IMN booking agent the one, the only, Alycia Mack. This episode questions many of the traditional ways in which business is done in the world of performing arts. Listen as Jeremy and Alycia weigh in on what can be done to make for a better system.

Hello everyone this is Mike Epstein and welcome to speaking of the arts. My guest today is Aisha Ahmad-Post. Aisha was recently named director of the Ent Center for the Arts at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs. This is going to be a great episode as Aisha has a totally unique perspective on running a performing arts center. In fact, she has had to build her program literally from the ground up! This episode is full of useful information and we cover a lot. Prior to her new role in Colorado, Aisha served as the public programs producer at the New York Public Library. Before that, she worked for the Aspen Music Festival and School and also at Columbia Artists Management. There she worked with artists including classical pianist Lang Lang and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. A classically trained pianist and double bassist, Aisha taught music theory as an associate instructor at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music. In fact,

Hello everyone and welcome to Speaking of the Arts. We’ve taken some time off but we are eager to start rolling out new episodes for you. As such, I couldn’t be happier to have the opportunity to speak with today’s guest. Full disclosure…today’s guest happens to also be one of our esteemed artists with whom we have the privilege of booking: the one and only Kat Edmonson! Here’s why you need to know about Kat. In a relatively short amount of time, Kat’s career has seen her recording and/or performing and sharing the stage with the likes of Lyle Lovett, Chris Isaak, Smokey Robinson, George Benson, and Willie Nelson just to name a few. Kat’s 2015 performance on “CBS This Morning: Saturday” garnered the program’s highest rated viewership since 2006. As a leader, Kat has released three critically acclaimed recordings including Way Down Low and The Big Picture. The Boston Globe described Way Down Low as “one of the greatest vocal albums I’ve ever heard.” The Big Picture debuted at number 1 on the Billboard Heatseek

Speaking of the Arts is pleased to welcome Wulf Muller to the show. Wulf is a highly seasoned veteran of the recording industry. In 1999, Wulf became Vice President of International Marketing Classics & Jazz for Universal Music. Here he was responsible for International marketing efforts for all Classics and Jazz priorities worldwide, as well as all local signings on the Emarcy Jazz and Emarcy Classics labels. In 2003 the role of A&R for the Emarcy Label was added to his responsibilities and it was during this period that Wulf signed acts like Madeleine Peyroux, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Michael Brecker, and John Scofield. In 2010, Wulf started a new company called All-In-Music Service – a consulting company for the music industry. Universal Music Group International soon became his first client. At the same time, All-In-Music Service acts as the European tour co-ordinator for artists like Branford Marsalis, James Carter, Jane Monheit and Karrin Allyson. In 2012, All-In-Music Service signed an exclusive jazz A

Panos Panay is the founder and managing director of the Berklee Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE). Prior to this, Panos created Sonicbids, the leading platform for bands to book gigs and market themselves online, building a subscriber network of 550,000 bands and 35,000 promoters from more than 100 countries. He led the company as CEO for 13 years, from its inception until after its successful acquisition in a deal backed by Guggenheim Partners. Panos is also the co-founder of the Open Music Initiative, which has brought together more than 140 leading music, media, technology industry organizations, and academic institutions to create a blockchain-based open protocol for uniform identification of musical rights owners and creators. (We will get into what all of that means during the episode). At Berklee, his work and approach to entrepreneurial and innovation pedagogy builds heavily on the concepts of music thinking, and in particular jazz, as a catalyst for creative breakthroughs in bus

Happy New Year Everyone! This is Mike Epstein and welcome to Speaking of the Arts. At the end of 2016 I made a special announcement on behalf of our booking agency, Epstein & Company. In case you missed it, starting in 2017, we have decided to give back in the form of a special fund for music students who would otherwise not be able to afford private lessons. This means that from now on, every time you book one of our artists, you are helping to empower a music student in need. To accomplish this, we are partnering with an organization called The MusicLink Foundation and today’s guest just so happens to be the founder and director, Dr. Joanne Haroutounian. Before we begin the episode, here’s a little about Joanne - She currently serves on the George Mason University piano faculty and coordinates the various piano pedagogy programs as well as the Music Education Graduate Seminars covering topics concerning artistic and musical talent development. Active internationally as a consultant in the areas of piano

Welcome to the 30th episode of Speaking of the Arts! Today’s guest is Jacob Yoffee. Jacob is currently the Resident Composer for the American Studio Orchestra and is a full time concert & film composer based in Los Angeles. Jacob’s music has been featured in the trailer campaigns for Star Wars : The Force Awakens, The Jungle Book, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Chronicles of Riddick and Kubo & the Two Strings. He is known for his work on MTV's hit drama 'Finding Carter', and Showtime’s award-winning ‘Time of Death’ series. Currently, Jacob is scoring 'Andi Mack' a new series for Disney and he is also working on the ad campaign for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Jacob's concert music has been performed in several cities in the US as well as abroad at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Royal Academy of Music and on BBC Radio. As a performer, Jacob was signed to Inner Circle Music Records in 2007, releasing his debut album, "Dead Reckoning." Jacob holds degrees from the Peabody Conse

In 2010, Jordan Passman founded SCORE A SCORE. The company helps musicians and composers discover exciting opportunities in the music-for-picture industry, while providing media-makers an outlet to access top-tier musical talent from around the globe. Since it’s launch, SCORE A SCORE has worked with the biggest companies, brands and film franchises in the world, including Google, Verizon, Intel, Microsoft, Salesforce, Fox, NBC, CBS, Disney, Netflix, MasterCard, Sprint, Target, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Funny or Die, Honda, Subaru, Acura, Shire, Pfizer and more. The company has helped produce trailers for major films including Allied, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Ben Hur, Justice League, the Jungle Book and Star Wars. SCORE A SCORE's innovative approach to music licensing, creation, placement, and supervision has been featured in Inc. Magazine, Forbes, Rolling Stone, The Huffington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Billboard, and more. Jordan also music supervised the acclaimed Netflix series, "Chef's Table" (fe

Speaking of the Arts welcomes Kathryn Maguet from the Weiss Center for the Performing Arts at Bucknell University. The Weis Center is a leader within the regional and national performing arts community, presenting more than 30 professional performances each year in addition to hosting department and university lectures. Prior to this role, Kathryn was the director of performing arts at Hamilton College in Clinton, NY, the Executive Director at Peery’s Egyptian Theater in Ogden, UT, the director of performing arts at the Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Sun Valley, ID, and the Center Series Director at the University of Massachusetts Fine Arts Center in Amherst, MA.

Kent Devereaux is the President and Chief Academic Officer of the New Hampshire Institute of Art (NHIA), a private, nonprofit, accredited college of the arts located in Manchester, New Hampshire, approximately one hour’s drive north of Boston. An accomplished educator and academic leader, Kent’s career has taken him around the world and back again. Before assuming the presidency at the New Hampshire Institute of Art in January 2015, Kent served as Professor and Chair of the Music Department at Cornish College of the Arts, where he also served as Artistic Director for the college’s presenting series, Cornish Presents, and where he co-founded and directed the Seattle Jazz Experience, a youth jazz festival—the latter earning him Downbeat magazine’s Jazz Education Achievement Award in 2014 and Cornish College of the Arts Distinguished Alumni Award in 2015. Kent also served on the faculty of both the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the California Institute of the Arts for many years. In addition to hi

This episode features Dave Scalia, a Brooklyn based touring, session drummer/producer, and musical director. Originally from Madison, WI, Dave moved to New York in 2010 and began to work with pop, rock, soul, indie, and electronic artists. During the past 6 years he has performed and or recorded with national and international touring acts including White Rabbits, Elle King, A Great Big World, Sky Ferreira, Diane Birch, Brazos, and Darren Criss. As a performer, Dave has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Good Morning America, The Today Show, Sesame Street, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Late Late Show, VH1 You Oughta Know, the MTV Awards, and NBS’s The Voice. Dave has performed at historic venues and festivals all over the world including Lollapalooza, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Glastonbury, Pitchfork Festival, Carnegie Hall, Ryman Auditorium, Hollywood Bowl, Governors Ball, and SummerSonic (Japan). Dave is currently endorsed by Zildjian Cymbals, C&C Dru

Michael Jaworek has been a concert promoter for over 40 years. His activities are focused in the Washington DC and Baltimore markets, where he is Vice President of the Birchmere. (The legendary club just celebrated its 50th anniversary). Michael has been nominated many times as “Nightclub Talent Buyer of the Year” by Pollstar Magazine. He is also a co-founder of the Washington Area Music Awards and has been a NARAS member & served on the Washington DC Board of Governors for philanthropy of NARAS. In 2013, Michael received the International Talent Buyers Association “Club Buyer of the Year” Award.

Speaking of the Arts features Ryan Andrews. Ryan is a Los Angeles-based composer, producer, sound designer and performer. His work has been featured in theatrical advertising campaigns for films and video games such as Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Furious 7, Hercules, and the Call Of Duty series. A versatile performer, he has had the privilege of working with a wide variety of acclaimed artists including Broadway star Lauren Kennedy and country phenom Frankie Ballard. His experience in the music production world goes beyond composition—as Production Manager for Pitch Hammer Music, Ryan helps manage one of the industry’s most elite boutique music libraries that been featured in almost every blockbuster movie trailer campaign since 2012.

Speaking of the Arts welcomes Marc Plotkin! In 2011, Bloomberg Business Week listed Marc and his co-founders in their list of top 25 entrepreneurs for their company CitizenGroove, an online social networking site for pro musicians. The company was subsequently renamed DecisionDesk and now helps hundreds of universities with the application process for music and non-music students alike. In 2013, Marc founded a new company called Wifi Music School, which connects musicians with students through Skype. As a musician, Marc has appeared on albums for major acts such as Ra Ra Riot and Panama Wedding.

We are honored to feature Mike Kappus, founder of The Rosebud Agency. Throughout his career, Mike went on to help launch the careers of Los Lobos, The Robert Cray Band, Ben Harper, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, John Hiatt, The Neville Brothers, Trombone Shorty and more, while helping to raise the profile of veteran artists such as Allen Toussaint, Captain Beefheart, Muddy Waters, The Staple Singers, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker and others. In this episode, Mike talks about the origins of the agency as well as what it was like to work with such renowned artists.