Sync Up: 2009 Panelists

Elliott Adams

Elliott serves as Digital Media Director at Louisiana Economic Development, where he administers the state's Digital Interactive incentive program. He is a recent transplant from Portland, where he worked in the entertainment and design fields as an entrepreneur, and then for CD Baby. After brokering digital licensing agreements for the firm's catalog of over two million sound recordings, he then served as Chief Technology Officer. Adams holds a Bachelor of Science from Portland State University, where he designed and taught curricula on media, society and technology.

Angelia Bibbs–Sanders

Angelia Bibbs–Sanders is a 20-year veteran of the music industry who began her career at Motown Records as Manager of Marketing and Artist Relations before moving to RCA Records as Director of Marketing Operations. A longtime marketing specialist, she has built a successful career helping musicians and music people reach for and attain their highest goals. She joined The Recording Academy in 1997 as Executive Director of the Los Angeles Chapter. She has held many positions within the member services department and in 2003 she was promoted to Vice President of Member Services. Her current responsibilities include the overall management of The Academy's member service programs and initiatives, and oversight of the 12 Academy offices and the Producers & Engineers Wing. She is also involved in marketing, artist relations, sponsorship development, and communications. She is active in charitable and community-based organizations, and is a trustee for the Center of Early Education, and a member of the executive committees for the Cedars-Sinai BrainTrust and City of Hope.

Peter Dammann

Peter Dammann, named "Blues Promoter of the Year (2000)" by the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, has served for the past 15 years as Artistic Director for the Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival — http://www.waterfrontbluesfest.org — in Portland, Oregon. Dammann is responsible for all artistic aspects — including talent booking, contract negotiation, stage production, artist relations and hospitality, artist accommodations and travel, press relations — of the West Coast's largest blues festival. Now in its 22nd year, the four–day, five–stage event attracts daily crowds of 25,000 with a lineup of over 125 local, regional, and national acts. During his tenure the festival has leaned heavily on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast for its lineups, which have included such headliners as The Neville Brothers, Dr. John and Irma Thomas, as well as acts relatively unknown to Northwest audiences like John Bouttee, Marva Wright and Keith Frank. The festival is the major annual fundraiser for the Oregon Food Bank, which is also producer of the event. Last year the festival raised $538,000 and 95,000 pounds of food for the agency. Since its inception, the festival has raised more than $4.6 million and 1.3 million pounds of food for hunger relief in the Northwest. Two weeks after the storm made landfall, Dammann helped the Oregon Food Bank pull together Blues for Katrina, a concert on Portland's waterfront that raised $125,000 for Gulf coast hurricane Relief.

Randy Eckhardt

Mr. Eckhardt was a key component to the inevitable success of the massively popular and award winning music game, RedOctane's "Guitar Hero" and "Guitar Hero 2". His responsibilities ranged from music supervision, song licensing, strategic alliances with Gibson Guitars, MTV Games and Guitar World; to the talent endorsement deal with ex–Ozzy guitarist, Zakk Wylde. Before starting his own company - http://www.eckhardtconsulting.com - in January 2005, Randy began his career working with Billboard Magazine and then CBS radio. He parlayed his acquired music and negotiating skills to a position with video game giant, Electronic Arts/EA SPORTS, where he worked for eight years. While there, he grew his position from Game Producer to Director of Music Relations. After leaving EA in 2001, he joined On Board Entertainment as Vice President of Music Supervision & Business Development (Interactive) and then moved to Rock River Communications as Vice President of Music Supervision & Business Development (Interactive). Randy has been a keynote and panel speaker at music conferences like MIDEM in Cannes, France and CANADIAN MUSIC WEEK in Toronto, Canada and COLLEGE MUSIC JOURNAL (CMJ) in New York City. He is also on the Blue Bear School of Music Board of Directors in San Francisco and is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Science (NARAS).

Gary J. Edwards

Gary J. Edwards, proprietor of the Sound of New Orleans record label, also works as a coordinator of talent for diverse festivals and entertainment events in the United States and abroad.

Peter Himberger

Peter Himberger is a longtime music and film industry insider who has worked as a film producer and music supervisor, as an event and tour producer and as an artist manager, with clients including such high profile acts as Dr. John, Cassandra Wilson, Gipsy Kings, Angelique Kidjo, Olu Dara and Hugh Masakela, Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, Alice Cooper, Michelle Shocked and Johnny Clegg & Savuka. Throughout his career, he has utilized non–traditional marketing strategies that have become the standard for today’s music marketing — utilizing film, TV, advertising, Internet, cable and digital formats.

Edgar "Dino" Gankendorff

Edgar D. "Dino" Gankendorff is an entertainment lawyer and the co-managing partner of the firm Provosty & Gankendorff. He is a Tulane graduate who represents Galactic, the Mahalia Jackson estate, the Imagination Movers, Mavis Staples, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Anders Osborne, Henry Butler, Tim Reynolds, Cupid, Jon Cleary, Nathan Williams, Keith Frank, Steve Riley, Lil' Band O' Gold, Amanda Shaw and many others. His practice focuses on negotiating recording contracts, publishing agreements, film licenses and management agreements. He is also involved in matters in litigation involving entertainment issues and copyright infringement matters.

David Hirshland

David Hirshland is the President of Bug Music Inc., the largest independent contemporary music publisher in the world, overseeing the day–to–day operations of the company's five worldwide offices. David began his career in the 1970's as a DJ at WBRU a free form FM radio station at Brown University in Providence, RI. After moving to San Francisco, he joined Mike Kappus at the Rosebud Agency and went on to represent, among others T. Bone Burnett, Bonnie Raitt, the Neville Brothers, Muddy Waters, Los Lobos and George Thorogood. He later moved to Los Angeles and formed a management company that represented Lucinda Williams. He went to law school in 1987, then joined Bug Music as Vice President of Business & Legal Affairs. During his tenure, Bug has increased the size of its roster of writers and catalogs. Among them are the estates of Johnny Cash, Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Woody Guthrie and Stevie Ray Vaughan, legendary artists such as Iggy Pop, the Guess Who and Los Lobos and contemporary rock stars such as Ryan Adams and Wilco.

Chris Joseph

Chris Joseph is the Head Honcho and Chief Fundraiser of Threadhead Records — threadheadrecords.com — an unprecedented non-profit record company formed out of the love for New Orleans and its music, and its musicians. In his day job, Chris is the owner of Christopher A. Joseph & Associates — cajaeir.com — an environmental consulting firm that specializes in the management and preparation of environmental documents, including Environmental Impact Reports and Statements, Assessments, Initial Studies, and Mitigation Monitoring Reports. CAJA has provided environmental planning services to the public and private sectors in California for over 20 years. Chris is a Los Angeles native, currently resides in Santa Monica, and is married with two young sons, ages 6 and 4. He serves on three other non–profit boards:  Friends of the Inyo in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range, Alternative Living for the Aging in Los Angeles, and the Spannocchia Foundation.

Danny Kapilian

Danny Kapilian is a New York-based live music and event producer/programmer. He has produced many high-level concerts and tours, including "Sing The Truth: The Music of Nina Simone" (touring major European festivals in July, 2009), "The Movie Music of Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard" (JVC Jazz Festival at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Hollywood Bowl, North Sea Jazz Festival) and others. He also produces parts of large American festivals, such as the River To River Festival in New York, the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta and live music events for National Geographic.

Tim Kappel

Tim Kappel is a third–year law student at Loyola University New Orleans, where he has focused on entertainment and intellectual property law. He was recently honored as a finalist in the Grammy Foundation's Entertainment Law Initiative, a national legal writing competition, for his article on fan–funded models in the European music industry. During law school, Tim has served as the site administrator for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation's Talent Exchange web site - http://talent.jazzandheritage.org, as Grammy University Student Representative, as judicial intern for Senior Judge John T. Nixon in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, as President of the Sports and Entertainment Law Society as as a member of Loyola's Law Review.

Mike Kappus

Mike Kappus is the founder and owner of San Francisco's Rosebud Agency. Since 1976, Rosebud has intentionally limited its roster to a select group of roots or roots–influenced artists whose music transcends trends. A certified green, solar powered company, Rosebud books close to 2,000 shows annually worldwide more than 30 client artists. Kappus helped launch the careers of Los Lobos, Robert Cray, Ben Harper, John Hiatt, The Neville Brothers and others while helping raise the profile of veterans Captain Beefheart, Muddy Waters, The Staple Singers, The Blind Boys of Alabama, John Lee Hooker and others. He currently manages JJ Cale, a Rosebud artist since 1983, and co-manages Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

Ashlye M. Keaton, Esq.

Ashlye M. Keaton, Esq., practices entertainment and intellectual property law with a focus on arts advocacy.  She is the Co-Founder and Supervising Attorney for the Entertainment Law Legal Assistance (ELLA) Project, which provides comprehensive pro bono legal services to Louisiana artists and musicians and instruction to third-year Tulane law students.  Recently, the ELLA Project received the 2008 Governor's Art Award in Cultural Economy, recognizing the Project's outstanding achievements as a direct result of meaningful and successful collaboration of ELLA's Co-Founders and Sponsors, the Arts Council of New Orleans, Tipitina's Foundation and Tulane Law School. She also runs a pro bono legal clinic with a grant from the Ford Foundation for Sweet Home New Orleans, a non–profit agency that offers social services and financial assistance to New Orleans' musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, Social Aid & Pleasure Club members and culture bearers. In addition to her pro bono work, she also maintains a private practice, concentrating on entertainment law, intellectual property law and international law.  She has served as guest lecturer to local universities and has committed to continuing to provide free legal workshops to artists and musicians.  She is the recipient of Offbeat Magazine's 2009 Award for Best Music Attorney; she was awarded in 2007 by New Orleans CityBusiness with their Leadership in Law Award; and she was awarded in 2005 by the Louisiana Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts with recognition for Outstanding Pro Bono Services to the Arts.

Luciano Linzi

Luciano Linzi has been the Artistic Director of the Casa del Jazz in Rome, Italy, since it was established in 2004. La Casa del Jazz is a music and educational center that sits on 2,500 square meters of lush landscaped parkland that includes a concert hall, recording and rehearsal studios, a restaurant, sleeping quarters for musicians and a shop for books and recordings. Luciano began his career in the 1970s at the University of Padua's Arts Center, where he helped to create a major jazz festival. In 1983 he founded the independent Gala Records, producing some of the most remarkable Italian jazz records of the ‘80s. During that period he has also served as the programmer and manager of the Ravenna & Reggio Emilia Jazz Festival. From 1986 to 1990 he has worked with jazz pianist Keith Jarret and jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater as a live event manager and record producer in Italy. He moved to Milan in 1990, where he joined the Warner Music Group, becoming managing director of the CGD East West label in 2001.

Christian Kuffner

Christian Kuffner of the Zydepunks — http://www.zydepunks.com — is a native of Cuenca, Ecuador. Raised in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., his first music gig was at his local church playing the organ at the age of 13. In 1992, he moved to Glasgow, UK, where he studied and created electronic music, played bass in local punk bands, and fell in love with the local Scottish folk music, picking up the fiddle in the process. In 1996, Christian moved back to the U.S. and two years later arrived in New Orleans, where he has resided ever since. In 2003, Christian finally started his dream band, a group that could combine traditional folk music with punk rock — the Zydepunks. Since then, the band has released four albums and completed various US and European tours. In 2007, the Zydepunks performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage festival.

David Margulies

David Margulies has been an equity partner and co-producer of the High Sierra Music Festival for 15 years - http://www.highsierramusic.com. Prior to that he worked as a regional A&R manager for Sony Music based in San Francisco. He's also done booking for a club, artist management and worked for seven years as managing editor of CMJ, a trade magazine focused on college and non-commercial radio. David got his start in the music business in New Orleans at Tulane University, where he was an integral part of radio station WTUL during one of the city's musical heydays (1977-1983). He currently lives in Ashland, OR, and is attending his 32nd consecutive Jazz & Heritage Festival. 

Jonathan McHugh

Jonathan McHugh is a Tulane graduate and frequent visitor to New Orleans. Having served as Vice President of Creative Development at Jive Records, Vice President of Music at New Line Cinema and Director of A&R/Consumer Marketing at A&M Records, he has had the rare opportunity to not only create hit soundtracks but to implement and execute the marketing of them at the same time. Through his new company, Song Stew Entertainment, he continues to bridge the gap between music and visual media.

Rick Mitchell

Rick Mitchell is the director of performing arts and director of education programs for the Houston International Festival. He previously served as the festival's music stage curator for six years and as the grant writer for three years. As director of performing arts, Rick is responsible for programming the festival's ten stages, which feature both international touring acts and the best local and regional music and dance. Rick's broad knowledge of music — developed over the course of a 30–year career as a music critic, disc jockey, musician and record producer — is essential to this job. His background as a teacher and a writer is equally essential to his role as education director, which includes editing the Teacher's Curriculum Guide, published annually by the festival and distributed free of charge to Houston-area schools. The grants the festival receives go directly to support the festival's education programs, which are at the heart of the festival's mission.

Ric Neil

Ric Neil is a veteran of the gaming industry and currently director of business development at Image Metrics, the leader in facial animation and motion capture. Prior to Image Metrics, he worked as head of production at D2C Games, a casual games startup. Ric founded D2C Games with long-time colleague Scott Orr, the original designer of the all-time best-selling Madden game franchise (who was called a "game making god" by Wired magazine in 2001). Prior to D2C Games, Neil worked at AMD in their console gaming division where he managed the technical relationships with the game development studios. Previously, he was with Microsoft, where he led the creative effort behind NFL Fever for Microsoft Game Studios. In addition, he managed the technical relationship between game publishing leader, Electronic Arts, and the Xbox division. Prior to Microsoft, Ric led the Madden and James Bond franchise production teams at Electronic Arts for over a decade.

Peter Noble

Peter Noble is the director of Australia's Bluesfest, held every Easter in Byron Bay's tranquil beachside community. A highly awarded and much loved international event, Bluesfest began in 1990, recently celebrating its 20th anniversary in grand style — with 85,000 fans from 25 countries attending. When not booking tours and festivals, Peter runs Aim Records, the label he founded in 1981. In 2008, Aim became the first Australian independent label to win a Grammy Award, for a live recording by Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience. Peter began his career as a musician, touring throughout Australia with blues and soul bands before relocating to the United States in 1974 and opening the first punk rock club in Portland, OR. He returned to Australia in 1980 and embarked on his career as a booking agent and tour promoter, becoming one of Australia's top festival talent buyers along the way.

Josh Rabinowitz

Josh Rabinowitz is senior vice president and director of music for the Grey Group, a global advertising agency based in New York. He has produced thousands of tracks for commercials internationally. These include some of the most high profile initiatives to integrate compelling music with advertising, with such artists as Black Eyed Peas, Run DMC (their last known recording together), LL Cool J, Smokey Robinson, LeAnne Rimes, Reba, Mark McGrath, Celia Cruz, B2K, Anastacia, Natasha Bedingfield, Rihanna, Queen Latifah, Macy Gray, Los Lonely Boys, Bo Bice and Alana Davis, among others. He's been called a "New Music Mogul" by Fast Company, "Beethoven's Greatest Fan" by NPR, and a "Top Music–Ad Agency Executive" by the National Association of Recording Industry Professionals. He is a recognized voice in the music–branding scene, having written the "With the Brand" column for Billboard. He's also an adjunct professor at NYU and the New School and a bandleader/trombonist in New York City.

Edgard Radesca

Edgard Radesca is the co–founder and managing director of the 15–year–old Bourbon Street Music Club in São Paulo, Brazil — a jazz and blues club modeled on the music architecture and atmosphere of New Orleans. He also runs the six–year–old Bourbon Street Fest, in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which brings to Brazilians a showcase of Louisiana rhythms. He holds an undergraduate degree from the University of São Paulo in industrial engineering, and post–graduate degrees in finance and marketing. He worked as a marketing executive and consultant until 1993, when he started the Bourbon Street club with his late business partner, Luiz Fernando Mascaro.

Jill Sobule

Jill Sobule — http://www.jillsobule.com — was, until recently, best known for her Top 20 hit of 1995 called "I Kissed A Girl." When a song of the same name became a hit for Katy Perry last year, Sobule got a slight bump in recognition. But now she is getting a attention from NPR, The New York Times, CNN, The New Yorker and other media outlets for her novel approach to funding her latest recording, "The California Years, Vol. 1." Through http://jillsnextrecord.com she raised $75,000 and was able to make a top-quality recording thanks to the generosity of her fans. Now she is a poster child for what is being called the Medici Model.

Hugh Southard

Hugh Southard, owner of the Blue Mountain Artists booking agency in Charlotte, NC, currently represents more than 40 nationally and internationally touring music acts, including eight based in Louisiana. He won the 2005 Blues Music Award for Agent of the Year. Prior to opening Blue Mountain, he worked for eight years as senior agent for Piedmont Talent, Inc. Hugh books more than 2,000 shows per year. He is also the personal manager of Tim Reynolds, lead guitarist in the Dave Matthews Band.

Lisa Stafford

Lisa Stafford is a native of Lafayette, LA, who has been programming coordinator of the Festival International de Louisiane since 1998. She has deep ties to the Louisiana music scene and has extensive knowledge about the music indigenous to Acadiana as well international world music. She helped to create the Festival International Rhythms & Roots series, which showcases local and international theater, music and film. She also coordinates the Louisiana International Music Exchange (LIME) during Festival International in 2005. Now in its 5th year, this music exchange encourages out of state/country venues to meet and book Louisiana musicians. She is also an artist manager who has started a family–owned record label.

Seymour Stein

Seymour Stein is a music industry legend, having discovered and signed to record deals such iconic artists as Madonna, the Talking Heads, the Ramones and the Pretenders. He began his career as a teen-ager in the 1950s, working at Billboard magazine, where he helped to establish the Billboard Hot 100 Charts and wrote reviews of early rock & roll concerts. He learned the record business as an intern at Syd Nathan's King Records in Cincinnati, then became Billboard's chart editor. Working out of the Brill Building at George Goldner's Red Bird Records, he helped to establish the model for independent record labels by creating such hits as "Chapel of Love" by the Dixie Cups. With Brill Building neighbor Richard Gottehrer, he created Sire Records in 1966. He signed the Ramones in 1975, the Talking Heads a year later. He went on to represent a who's who of the most popular artists in music, including such diverse talents as Ice–T, the Cure, kd lang, Seal, Barnaked Ladies, Boy George, Ministry and Wilco.