Lachlan ‘Magoo’ Goold
Australia
Q Music
Lachlan “Magoo” Goold is a PhD student in Music at QUT and a multi award-winning Australian music producer. After working briefly in mechanical engineering, Magoo began producing local Brisbane bands such as Dreamkillers and Pangaea in the early 1990s. By the mid-1990s Magoo had also produced music by Powderfinger, as well as two EPs by Regurgitator. He rose to prominence however with his production of the Regurgitator debut full-length album "Tu-plang", which also earned him his first ARIA award nominations in 1996. In the late 1990s Magoo was engaged to produce or engineer for a number of high-profile acts such as Midnight Oil and Skunkhour. In 1998 Magoo won the ARIA awards for both production and engineering, the former for his work on the Regurgitator album "Unit", and the latter as a collective award for his work with Midnight Oil, Regurgitator and Skunkhour. He has since continued to work with high profile acts, such as Regurgitator, Spiderbait, Gerling and Renee Geyer. In 2007 Magoo received ARIA award nominations for his work with Kate Miller-Heidke and Operator Please.
Yanto Browning
Australia
Q Music
Yanto is a Brisbane based recording engineer & record producer. Yanto has worked with world renowned recording artists like Ed Sheeran, and some of Australia’s most recognized and award-winning musicians including The Medics, Kate Miller-Heidke, Tara Simmons, The Jungle Giants, Jac Stone, The Belligerents, The Art of Sleeping, James Grehan, Mosman Alder, Darren Middleton & Ian Haug (Powderfinger), Jeff Martin (the Tea Party), Yves Klein Blue, Big Scary, The Chutes, Karl S.Williams, Workinghorse Irons & many more. He predominantly works out of Airlock studios, just north of Brisbane, but travels around the country as a much in-demand producer and recording engineer. Yanto is also an associate lecturer, heading up production at the Queensland University of Technology.
Kristina Kelman
Australia
Queensland University Of Technology
Dr Kristina Kelman is a lecturer in Music and Sound. She has 23 years experience working as both a professional musician and an educator in both the high school and tertiary sectors. In 2009, Kristina established Youth Music Industries (YMI), an organization run by young musicians for young musicians across Queensland engaging in music industry learning through real-world, entrepreneurial contexts. YMI received $100,000 in funding over three years which saw the development of the first all-ages music festival for emerging and headline acts, Little BIGSOUND, a one day music industry conference for the youth in conjunction with QMusic, and the establishment of Emerge, a series of all-ages gigs for young emerging musicians at venues from the Gold Coast to Cairns. Kristina was invited to present her research at a Tedx event at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in 2014. She has also had extensive experience working in the area of community arts and culture. In 2013 she collaborated on the Music Bridges project in Vanuatu, which brought together musicians from across Indian and Pacific Oceans in the form of a music camp with performances at signature music festivals in Australia, Vanuatu and Africa. Kristina has also been working with ARIA award winning musician David Bridie and the Queensland Indigenous Languages Advisory Committee on a national language recording project ‘Yamani- Voices of an Ancient Land’ premiered at the Queensland Music Festival in July this year.
Roz Papparlardo
Australia
QMusic, Cairns Regional Council/Tanks Arts Centre
Roz Pappalardo - Roz has been a constant in the Australian Music Industry for approximately 20 years as an independent musician, as well as presenter, programmer and producer based in regional Queensland, currently heading up the iconic Tanks Arts Centre, Cairns Civic Theatre and Cairns Festival as Program Manager. She is heavily involved in consulting on artist pathways for many emerging and established regional Queensland artists. Roz has also worked heavily in community arts, developing and delivering projects that support and benefit community using music as a focus as well as delivering development projects in remote Indigenous communities in Northern Territory. She is currently sitting on the board of QMusic, Queensland's leading music industry organization.
Adam Greig
India
KM Music Conservatory
Originally from St Andrew’s in Scotland, Dr Adam Greig completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Lancaster University in England, where he received a BA (Hons) in Music and a Masters degree in Music with Distinction, and went on to complete a doctoral thesis on the music of French composer, Germaine Tailleferre. As an active performer and musicologist Adam’s research involves combining different modes of analytical enquiry with experience from practice, to better understand interpretation and artistic transmission. He specialises in performing early 20th Century French repertoire with a secondary area of performance as contemporary electro-acoustic music and he has performed both existing repertoire and premieres in this genre at the International Computer Music Conference in Belfast and the LICA-Mantis Festival in Lancaster. As a researcher, Adam has given papers at Cambridge University, King’s College London and the International Conference of Music Since the 1900s, held in Keele. Since 2011 Adam has worked at KM Music Conservatory, AR Rahman's music institution in Chennai India where he is the Academic Co-ordinator with oversight over all Music programmes, curriculum and the institutional partnership with Middlesex University, London. He also leads the Diploma Programme and is a member of the piano faculty, teaching students on both the Foundation and Diploma Programmes.
Prashant Pillai
India
Music Producer
Prashant Pillai is an experimental and distinctive musical producer. Firmly established as a eclectic music producer and songwriter, Prashant draws his influences from varied musical genres including jazz and blues. Known for his selective works, Prashant is the only composer from India who been been actively scoring across 4 film industries for feature films, commercials and more.
Pierre-Emmanuel Jacob
India
Alliance Française of Madras
Pierre-Emmanuel Jacob has taken up his post as Director of the Alliance Française of Madras on September 2014. He hails from Noisy-Le-Sec, a city near Paris where he was Director of Cultural Affairs and holds degrees from both the French Political Science Institute of Aix-en-Provence in International Relations and from the Graduate Institute of International Studies of Geneva in Public International Law. He has been awarded the title of “Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters” in France. Mr Jacob’s coming to India is actually a happy return for him as he was the Director of the Alliance Française of Bombay from 1997 to 2001. He is well-integrated into the Alliance Française network and has also managed the French Cultural Centre in Jakarta from 1992 to 1994, the Alliance Française of Macao from 1995 to 1997 and of Singapore from 2005 to 2010.
Mana Contractor
India
Sideways to Sound
Current Lead singer of Chandbibi and The Waste Candidates and Jazz Band The Mystery Tourists, Mana is a versatile vocalist who is equally comfortable singing jazz, RnB and rock. In moments of madness, she can also do a respectable rap. She loves live looping and generates very interesting vocal effects and layers to texture songs. Mana's teachers have included Magos Herrera, Natalie John, Raphaelle Brochet and Alex Pinto for jazz and Aditi Upadhyaya and Priya Purushothaman for Hindustani. She has performed across India, is also a teacher at two schools in Bangalore and at a music therapy center in Chennai. Apart from her work as a musician she works for the world music festival, Jodhpur Riff held in Jodhpur every year and writes and curates a website called Sideways to Sound.
Vítor Belho
Spain
Nordesía Produccións / WOMEX 16 / Primera Linea
Vitor Belho is a music thinker, cultural manager and music promoter committed to promoting cultural diversity. He has more than 25 years of experience working in music, and promotes culture and the arts as tools for social innovation, social change and social development. He is the founder of Nordesía Produccións - a world renowned music production company associated with events including WOMEX. In the near future, Nordesía Produccións will also initiate a new music crossing called Primera Línea - the first music expo in La Havana, Cuba. Vitor is also a festival director, manager, agent, booker, and a music internationalization and exchange consultant.
Fotinatos Anais
France
Organic Orchestra
Organic Orchestra was founded by EZRA (Vincent Chtaïbi) - a beatboxer musician (geekboxer) - and produces creations that are contemporary and popular, multidisciplinary and collaborative. For almost 10 years now, EZRA has been able to gather a team composed of instigators and makers, self taught or graduated, artists, technicians and scientists, engineers, knowledge transmitter but also curious and engaged cultural stakeholders. Organic Orchestra draws its inspiration from organic sources that are as simple and rich as the breath (through beatbox) or paper, and brings them together with modern tools and technologies. It is consistently experimenting with new forms within the fields of performances, installations, educational interventions, and collaborative research (workshop).
Bhaskar Pal
India
Dolby ATMOS
Bhaskar Pal is a graduate of the Film and Television Institute of Pune, India, having specialized in Sound Recording and Sound Engineering. He has worked as a freelance recording engineer for films and television. His experience spans more than 17 years in the film and television industry in various capacities as location sound engineer, audio-post supervisor, sound-designer, studio acoustic designer and in system-design. He joined Dolby in the year 2000 as a sound consultant - as a Dolby consultant and engineer he has many years of experience in film-post, cinema and studio installations, acoustic design, broadcast mixing and supporting the content creation community in surround sound production. Currently his role as a Content Services Engineer sees him supporting surround sound production and design, and imparting training to technical staff involved in content creation as well as exhibition.
Kaushik Dutta
India
Song of Soul / SOS Productions / Kolkata International Music Festival
Kaushik is a versatile musician and plays a number of Indian string and percussion instruments. He has composed music for Bollywood films, short films, theatre and dance theatre projects. He has toured extensively and performed at over 300 shows abroad. Besides conducting workshops for differently abled children and special needs schools, he has participated in collaborative projects, seminars and panel discussions including the Jazz Master Class Series organised by the National Arts Centre, Ottawa in collaboration with the Manhattan School of Music. He was a visiting tutor at the London Roundhouse and Singapore Music Academy. He is the founder of Song of Soul - an NGO which works towards relieving poverty in tribal and folk music communities by providing strong economic opportunities for long term sustenance and is also the Artistic Director of the ‘Kolkata International Music Festival’. In the past five years the festival has supported more than 1500 distressed folk musicians of India. More than 150 international musicians from 12 countries have also performed at the festival. Kaushik believes ‘Art survives when the Artist does’.
Pritham K. Chakravarthy
India
L.V. Prasad Film & TV Academy
Pritham K. Chakravarthy is a theatre performer, was featured at The Edinburgh International Festival (2001) and has traveled exntensively around the globe and within India for over a decade. She has been teaching Dramaturgy, Advanced Screenwriting, Understanding Subtext, Directing Actors and Acting for the past six years at the Ramanidu Film School, Hyderabad. She has also translated reputed Tamil authors for Blaft Publication and Penguin India. She still has two ongoing publications to be completed for Penguin. Currently, she is a visiting faculty member at the L.V. Prasad Film & TV Academy.
Venkatesh Chakravarthy
India
L.V. Prasad Film & TV Academy
Starting his career as a production executive in the Hindi film industry and as an assistant director & co-scriptwriter in Tamil and Malayalam cinema, Venkatesh Chakravarthy then taught at the Film & Television Institute of Tamilnadu from 1983-1987. After various assignments with leading production houses, he went to Malaysia to teach the first post graduate course in Screen Studies in that region at the Science University of Malaysia, Penang from 1999-2002. On his return, Chakravarthy wrote a critically acclaimed play Mirror, which has been performed in theatre festivals and workshops in India and around the world. In 2005 he worked as the Executive Producer of an Indian English feature film Framed which was written and directed by Chetan Shah and produced by Rawfilm. This was followed by his critically acclaimed documentary feature, Chennai: The Split City in 2006, following which he worked as a Senior Faculty member at the Mindscreen Film Institute founded by reputed cinematographer, Rajiv Menon. He joined the L.V.Prasad Film & TV Academy in July 2014.
Gregoire Vaillant
France
Collectif Opera / Zenpark / Moongai
Grégoire Vaillant is a Composer / Artistic Director / Studio Owner whose interests also include cinema, literature, people and adventures. He co-founded the band Moongaï in 2008 - which released 1 Album and 2 EPs for Warner Music. He also co-founded the recording studio Zenpark in 2011 and the Collectif Øpera in 2015 - a transdisciplinary company for the creation of big live acts. He studied Bass / Drum / Piano / Writing at French Classical and Jazz Schools for 13 years, and also studied Hip Hop and Electronica. His clients have included: Warner Music / Liverpool International Music Festival / Manchester Camerata Orchestra / Chivteam / Dj Snake & Skrillex / Icare Theatre / Arts Décos Paris / Pathé Films.
John Anthony
India
Karnatriix Guitarist / Composer / Producer
John Anthony is a freelance guitarist, composer and session artist, best known as the architect of the internationally renowned new-age World Music band ‘Karnatriix’. He has gathered international attention to his unique sound and has toured extensively across the globe. John is also an empanelled artist under ICCR. In his career, John has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the music industry such as T.V.G, L.Shankar, A.R.Rahman, Zakir Hussain, Vikku Vinayakram to name a few. An accomplished session artist, John has recorded and arranged music for over 2500 films. A significant performance of John was the ‘No More Bhopals’ concert supported by Greenpeace International, for which John founded “The Banned” – a rock group inspired by the struggle of the survivors of the Bhopal disaster. He has also contributed immensely to theater productions, the most popular one being ‘Prahalada Charitram’ directed by the famous Gil Alon. In 2004, John established his project Karnatriix and its first album ‘Namaste’, was released in 2008. The band featured international artists and had toured Russia in 2012 and recently, Maldives; both the tours being backed by the ICCR. The band also toured China and Germany, supported by the Goethe Zentrum. Personally, John Anthony loves to play against the grain of the guitar and explore musical possibilities.
Simon Broughton
United Kingdom
Songlines Magazine
Simon Broughton has worked in Media since graduating in Russian and Music in 1981. He worked at the BBC as a radio producer for 8 years, then as a TV director and producer for 7 years, and then went freelance as a filmmaker and journalist. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of Songlines, the world music magazine which has been running since 1999. He is also co-editor of the Rough Guide to World Music (Penguin) and world music critic for the London Evening Standard. He has also written for the Guardian, Independent and other publications, including Tehelka.
Sonya Mazumdar
India
Earthsync
Sonya Mazumdar is the Founder/CEO of EarthSync, a music production house, award-winning documentary film producer, and a global, cross-cultural artistic collaborator. EarthSync's initiative IndiEarth Project was created to build a multi-country collective of professional, cultural, educational and economic collaborations for the development of the independent music, film and media industry infrastructure in India. IndiEarth XChange is the annual trade event in India for independent music, film and media with a focus on networking India, Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean region. Avid traveller and writer, Sonya has over 20 years experience in project management and social responsibility in the infrastructure and content industries in India, West Africa and Asia.
Yotam Agam
Israel / India
Earthsync
Yotam Agam is the Founder/CTO of EarthSync, a production house of award-winning documentary films, music productions, online platforms, music and cultural festivals, connecting cultures and people through music, films, and its initiative XChange, an annual trade event for independent artists in India. An audio engineer and sound Designer, Yotam has done several on-location recording and mixing projects worldwide, recording and mixing for some of the biggest names in the music industry. Yotam’s work is deeply rooted in South India, the Indian Ocean region and Asia, engaging with local cultures and projects that build bridges for independent and folk artists.
Yoav Rosenthal
Israel / India
Earthsync
Yoav Rosenthal is a musician and music producer who has played and toured around the world with various acts and bands. His second love, the digital world led him to head the technical team of ‘LiveDNS’ – a leading company in Internet solutions, web application and information architecture. In 2011 Yoav decided to combine both his passions - Music and Technology - to join EarthSync. Starting out as the development manager of the IndiEarth project, his touring musician experience contributed vastly to the project. Apart from being a project development manager for many EarthSync projects, Yoav is also an integral part of EarthMoments – a boutique samples project that creates tools and virtual instruments for musicians and music producers.
Ruchika Tiku
India
Blue FROG Media Pvt. Ltd.
Ruchika Tiku has been working in the music and arts & culture space for over 10 years - first as an artist, then as a producer conceptualizing properties that involve showcasing music across different media platforms especially live and film. From having her own firm titled Sand of Sea that produced the first of its kind Afro-Brazilian showcase in India titled 'Rhythms of the Earth' to heading new projects with Pancham Nishad - promoters in the arts and culture space - she has covered documentary films, live events, launch campaigns among others. She now heads the programming for the brand blueFROG with the mandate to expand the scope of the brand across the clubs, outside venues and create IP's that can run across different centres. blueFROG has been a pioneer in the space of live music since the time it opened its doors and created the music revolution in India in 2007. It changed the scene by giving a platform for independent artists to showcase their music at a time when there were no avenues and only Bollywood and rock prevailed. Today blueFROG has 3 venues - Pune, Mumbai, and Bangalore - soon to open a small hub in Goa, and plans to go international soon.
Stephen Thirgood
Australia
Bandviews
Stephen is the founder and Managing Partner of BandViewsTM and Curious Minds Entertainment. Stephen has devoted his new venture to creating lasting positive change to digital music by allowing artists and fans to directly control the dialogue. In his past life, Stephen is an award winning senior manager with a proven track record of business leadership and success in marketing. He has over ten years of experience in Asia Pacific and until 2015 called Singapore home. He is the former General Manager and current Shareholder of Vocanic Singapore, voted 2nd in SEA for Specialist and Independent Agency of the year in 2012 and 2013 by Campaign Asia and recently acquired by WPP, the worlds largest media company.
Priyanka Bhattacharya
Singapore
Bandviews
Priyanka is a multifaceted entertainment professional with over 13 years of multi industry experience. She has been an art director, an agent to Bollywood stars, an entertainment marketing specialist, a digital marketer and most recently an entrepreneur. Priyanka has deep insights in to the mystical Bollywood world and has exposure to Indian sports stars and Indi musicians. Priyanka plans to transfer her strengths by being a part of new ventures and with that be able to bring India to the world. Priyanka is Partner/ Business Director (Asia) for BandViews and Curious Minds Entertainment, and Founder of Sparkling Media.
Manojna Yeluri
India
Artistik License
Manojna Yeluri is the founder and principal legal consultant of Artistik License. She is an independent legal consultant and researcher, passionate about working with artists and professionals in various creative industries. Based out of Bangalore and Hyderabad, she assists and educates artists and entrepreneurs on a range of legal issues by way of her website, specialized workshops, lectures and consultations. As a member of the legal fraternity, Manojna has had the opportunity to work with some astute legal scholars and institutions. She graduated from the NALSAR University of Law in Hyderabad, India with a BA.LLB (Honours) and earned an LLM or Master’s Degree from the UCLA School of Law, specializing in Entertainment, Media and Intellectual Property Law. Coming from a family of bankers, journalists, actors and musicians, Manojna had the opportunity to learn and appreciate various art forms, early in her life. Her work with Artistik License is a manifestation of her deep-rooted respect for the arts, blended with her skills acquired from a legal education.
Praveen K L
India
Avid Media
Having started his editing career at ETV, Praveen had the good fortune of working under Balu Mahendra. He became a name to reckon with after Saroja won him the Tamil Nadu State Award as the Best Editor and Praveen went on to win the National Award for his work on Araanya Kandam. He has edited over 50 films and has been signed to edit the latest Rajanikanth starrer Kabali and a Hollywood production called WoolFell. At XChange 2015, Praveen will share his thoughts on the creative aspects of editing and how Avid Media Composer has been a part of his editing life.
Tapas Nayak
India
Sound Engineer
A gold medalist from Satyajit Ray Film Institute, Tapas started his career assisting H.Sridhar on Lagaan, followed by Dil Chahta Hai. Since 2007, he has worked as an independent sound designer and mixer for Hindi, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam films. He won the Apsara Film Producer’s Guild Award for Best Mix for Mani Ratnam’s Ravan. Tapas also works on independent short films and documentaries and won the Best Sound Designer award for the Ashish Pandey directed short film called Open Doors at the 4th Jaipur International Film Festival and the Kerala Chalachitra Academy award for the critically acclaimed Malayalam film Lyobinte Pusthakam. Tapas will discuss his approach to doing sound for picture and why Pro Tools is his DAW of choice.
Subbiah Varun
India
Grey Films India Pvt Ltd
Subbiah Varun is a filmmaker, working part time with Grey Films India Pvt Ltd. He finished schooling from Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi in 2014 and has assisted Nalla - a wildlife filmmaker - for a film project aimed at the preservation of tigers, and a film on the Western Ghats. His short 'Elsewhere' about a “mercurial state of mind” was nominated at Reel 13. Currently he is working on a musical video based on the theme 'Save the Tiger'.
Navneet Rao
India
Musician / Music Producer / Sound Engineer
Navneet Rao is a musician, music producer, and sound engineer based out of Bangalore. He studied music performance at Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, and was employed as the teaching assistant to the producer and recording engineer, as well as the live sound engineer. He has performed with various artists across India (and abroad), and has mixed and mastered tracks for a variety of genres ranging from Jazz, to Metal, to Electronic. He loves music and technology, is passionate about learning new concepts, and eager to collaborate.
Romuald Requena
France
SAKIFO Musik Festival / ZAKIFO Festival
Romuald Requena is the co-programmer for the Sakifo Musik Festival (Reunion Island) and Zakifo (Durban, South Africa). The 12th edition of the Sakifo Festival gears up to take place on the 5th, 6th and 7th of June 2016 at the Ravine Blanche venue in Saint Pierre and its long life (the longest of all the island’s festivals)- in spite of the challenges it has faced - can to a great extent be attributed to the strong connection it has forged with its audiences. Romuald is also production manager for the annual world music trade event and conference IOMMA (Indian Ocean Music Market). As an artist manager, he manages artists including : Maya Kamaty, Nathalie Natiembe, Tiloun, and Tumi.
Phoebe Kiddo
Australia / Germany
Musician
Australian-born Phoebe Kiddo began cultivating a keen ear for multifaceted, expressive electronics in her native Melbourne, where she collaborated with improvisational trio K&M and founded the Racket showcase. Following the completion of a degree in Sound from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Kiddo moved to California and participated in Red Bull Music Academy 2011. Her debut EP, “Tripping on the Wake of Goodbyes,” with its strata of diaphanous synths and sub-bass thrums, was released on Anenon’s Non Projects imprint. In 2014, Kiddo followed-up with her first full-length LP, Artefacts of Broken Dreams (Symbiosis) crafted during a self-described period as a “musical pilgrim” working in borrowed studios between L.A. and Berlin, where she has currently settled.
Ranvir Shah
India
Prakriti Foundation
Ranvir Shah is a cultural catalyst in Chennai. His great interest in books, art, music, interior decoration and a very sharp and keen aesthetic perception began to get noticed even when he was in college and he directed A.K.Ramanujan’s translation of Sangham poetry as a dramatic event with Nirupama Nityanandan and Dipankar Mukherjee making their debut theatre appearances. Both have gone on to become international theatre persons with Nirupama having been given the Chevalier des arts by the French government. Ranvir Shah founded Prakriti Foundation to host events enquiring into our cultural heritage and inheritance. Single handedly, he has been a catalyst in changing the cultural scene in Chennai and has been responsible in giving Chennai some of its most memorable events through the Prakriti Foundation.
Kalaimamani M. Lalitha
India
Carnatic Violinist
Dr. M. Lalitha Kalaimamani is an internationally acclaimed Carnatic violin maestro, and has a Ph. D in Indian Music from the University of Madras. With a career spanning over two decades, Lalitha is regarded as a highly imaginative virtuoso Violinist with immaculate bowing along with dexterous fingering techniques. Hailing from an illustrious family of musicians, Lalitha has the privilege of being the fourth generation of musicians in her family. She performs Carnatic Classical Music, World music, Fusion and Western Classical music. She has performed extensively in major music festivals in India and in other countries including USA, Singapore, Malaysia, Norway, Australia, Nepal, United Kingdom, Middle East, South Africa, Mauritius, New Zealand, Europe.
Jérémie Hahn
France
Fraca-Ma
Jérémie Hahn has been working in the artistic and cultural field for a decade, first as a musician, and later on as a Project Coordinator for different organisations such as "Le Petit Faucheux" (a Jazz venue) and "Fraca-Ma". He has a degree in English and a Masters degree in Culture and Mediation of Live Performance. He has toured around France with several bands and he's now playing with the rock band Altâmon.
Barnali Ray Shukla
India
Writer / Director
Barnali Ray Shukla is a filmmaker and a writer. Starting off as a cell-biologist specializing in plant tissue culture and a topper of the Delhi University both at graduate and post graduate level, Barnali soon turned towards film-making. Over the years, she has worked with Ram Gopal Varma, Sudhir Mishra and Ekta Kapoor. Her first feature film as a writer-director Kucch Luv Jaisaa, was released in May 2011. Apart from story and scriptwriting, she also writes poetry and was published in Kitaab last July.
V S Kundu
India
Government of Haryana, India
V S Kundu is a cinema buff from Chandigarh. He is a career bureaucrat, belonging to the 1986 batch of Indian Administrative Service in the Haryana Cadre. From 2012 to 2015 he headed the Films Division of India, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, the State department that promotes documentaries in India. During his tenure, many new initiatives were taken to mainstream Indian documentary. He loves Documentary filmmakers, Indie artists both in cinema and other fields, adventure sports and travel.
Lalit Verma
India
Aurodhan / Alliançaise de Pondichéry
Lalit Verma is the Founder of Aurodhan, a boutique venue that was born with the vision and love for promoting excellence in art and culture. It is a one-stop integrated Art Gallery, Heritage Guest House, Artist-in-Residence centre, and framing workshop located centrally in Pondicherry. He is also the President of Alliançaise de Pondichéry.
Marion Joly
Reunion Island
Tour Manager
Marion Joly is the tour manager for artists such as Tété, Bazbaz, Hocus Pocus, and The Do, and has been in this line of work for the past 13 years. She has also been the technical manager for the festival Les Rockomotives, and a production assistant for the Sakifo Musik Festival for the past three years. Marion has worked as production assistant for a number of other events as well, such as Printemps de Bourges, and Les Eurockéennes.
Ramani RV
India
Ramanifilms
R.V.Ramani, is one of the leading cinematographers and documentary filmmakers in India. With more than 25 independent films to his credit, he has created a unique impressionistic style of his own, which has found recognition in India and abroad. His films and retrospectives has been shown in many International film festivals and forums. With more than 25 independent films, Ramani is working on different documentary film projects seeking collaborations.
Suprateek Chatterjee
India
HuffPost India
A software engineer by degree, Suprateek Chatterjee has been a journalist/film critic covering cinema, music, and pop culture for the last 7 years. Aside from having worked full time with Mumbai Mirror, Mid-Day, Hindustan Times, and HuffPost India, he has written for a number of publications as a freelancer, including FirstPost, Time Out Mumbai, and Elle magazine. On weekends, when not beering it up at a nearby microbrewery, he composes music — he's a guitarist, songwriter, and budding producer currently busy with a new electro act called Hologram 28. When free from all of this, he treks and travels around with his trusty ol' backpack.
Michael Genrich
Austria
Georg Leitner Productions
Michael Genric is an artist booking agent & event manager active in Europe, India, Indonesia, Australia, the Middle East and the US. His bookings and collaborations have included artists like Inner Circle, Robert Davi, Alborosie, Julian Marley, Jimmy Cliff, Meta & The Cornerstones, Toumani & Sidiki Diabate, Boney M, Village People and and Ky-Many Marley.
Eva MENARD
France
Moongaï & Collectif Øpera
Eva Menard is a Singer / Writer / Artistic Director / Studio Owner. She co-founded the band Moongaï in 2008 (1 album & 2 EPs for Warner Music), the recording studio Zenpark in 2011 (Film Music, Commercials, Record Producing) and the Collectif Øpera in 2015 (Transdisciplinary Company for the Creation of Big Live Acts). She studied at the Academy "Technique du Chanteur Moderne" with Allan Wright, at various dance Schools for 15 years (studying Jazz and Contemporary dance) and has a Masters of Sociology from Nantes University. Her clients include: Warner Music, Liverpool International Music Festival, Manchester Camerata Orchestra, Chivteam, Dj Snake & Skrillex, Icare Theatre, Arts Décos Paris and Pathé Films. She also loves literature, poetry, and cinema.
Jai Undurti
India
Syenagiri
Jai Undurti is Creative Director of Syenagiri. He has a background in journalism and writes for leading publications on travel and popular culture. Undurti started Every City is a Story – a unique city-centric graphic storytelling initiative. His current projects include The Robots of Dharma, set in a dystopian India. He is now working on "The Game", with co-writer V. Starovoit and artist Kishore Mohan.
Kiran Ahluwalia
United States
Musician / Composer
At the center of Kiran Ahluwalia¹s music is love in all its shades – yearning sensual love and Sufi mysticism. Kiran Ahluwalia explores the language of the heart through the great vocal traditions of India and Pakistan which she honors intensely while exploring bold new territories. Classically trained but with a strong contemporary edge, Kiran’s arrangements are heavily influenced by New York City jazz guitarist Rez Abbasi - the No. 1 ’Rising Star Guitarist’ in the leading jazz critics’ poll in DownBeat magazine; and after collaborating with Saharan musicians Tinariwen on her 5th album, Kiran’s work continues to also be influenced by African desert blues and her time spent amongst Malian musicians.
Edison Prithiviraj
India
Exodus / Unwind Center
Eddie Prithiviraj is the founder of Exodus - which is associated with Music Festivals and Event Organization / Unwind Center - Art and Music Performance Venue Chennai. Exodus Music Festivals include Global iSAi Festival / Madras Jazz Festival / Himalayan Blues Festival / October Fusion Festival.
Ruth Hardie
United Kingdom
Southbank Centre
Ruth works in cross-arts Learning and Participation with a special focus on Music and its accessibility, and is currently Participation Producer (Music) at Southbank Centre, in their Festival Programming Team. She previously designed, created and managed the Music Outreach Department at Cambridge University Faculty of Music, with a key programming role in the University Festival of Ideas, an annual Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Festival. In her work at Southbank Centre Ruth works on a number of festival programmes each year, some with an international focus including Alchemy (a Festival exploring contemporary art of all genres, celebrating the rich cultural relationship between the UK and the Indian subcontinent) and Africa Utopia (focussing on Art and Ideas from Africa that are changing the world).
Mohan Kumar K
India
Freelance Writer / Musician
Mohan Kumar K is a freelance travel and music writer as well as a singer-songwriter based out of Mumbai. He has been writing with music and travel for publications such as the Hindustan Times newspaper, Brunch Magazine, HT Cafe, Rolling Stone magazine and a website called 101india.com. Prior to being a freelance writer he used to cover news stories and music related stories for Hindustan Times and the Indian Express Newspaper. On the music front he is working on releasing his debut EP and also indulges in occasional music production releasing singles and doing background score for video campaigns and short films.
Jean François Cadet
Reunion Island
ACTER
Jeff Cadet is the manager of ACTER (Acting for Culture and Tourism in the East of Reunion island). He created and is managing the BISIK, the First Actual Music Venue in Saint-Benoit, Capital of The East of the Island. He also manages bookings for several artists from both Reunion and Mauritius Islands. BISIK, from the Malagasy word Tsibika meaning wriggling, is the favorite little fish of Reunion Islander, that you only can find in the mouths of rivers located in the east of the Island. Bisik is also since September of 2014 a new little concert venue in the East of Reunion Island. Their programming is eclectic, favoring Indian Oceanic projects. They also assists artists in production.
Michel Cazal
Reunion Island
Artistic Producer
Michel Cazal is a professional with more than 25 years of experience at top positions as strategic consultant, financial analyst, business manager, information system developer and artistic producer. He has a specific knowledge and expertise on leveraging opportunities in an innovative and cross-cultural environment. With a multi disciplinary background, he has worked as team leader and manager on many projects for governments, companies and artists in the Indian Ocean area, especially French Reunion Island, Mauritius and India. He managed, produced and played the Indo Run Maloya the music fusion workshop between Reunion Island and India in 2005. He is also the Chairman of the regional organization for the development of the music sector in Reunion Island, (PRMA) whose main objective is to implement a strategic framework focused on export and value creation for the local industry.
Nicolas Gonthier
Reunion Island
Communication Manager
Nicolas Gonthier is Communications Manager of Pôle Régional des Musiques Actuelles de La Réunion (Regional office for today's music in Reunion). PRMA’s goal is the professionalization of Reunionese artists. They work to create schemes that help to hire and export local music talent. Since this year, the PRMA opened its operation to professionals of the sector.
Patrick Mathieu
Reunion Island
SACEM
Patrick Mathieu is the regional delegate of SACEM. The primary purpose of SACEM is to collect payments of authors’ rights and redistribute them to the original authors and composers and the publishers. SACEM also conducts cultural initiatives and programs to encourage the emergence of new repertoires, support live performances, and help young authors, composers and performing artists get trained to meet professional standards.
Amandine Moreau
Reunion Island
La Cité des Arts
Amandine Moreau is Music Production Manager of La Cité des Arts. La Cité des Arts is an interdisciplinary artistic complex that provides spaces to create and venues to show your work. Their activities include conducting workshops and artist residencies, and the venue has ample rehearsal spaces and record studios.
Kishore Mohan
India
Studio Dreamcatcher
Kishore Mohan is a self taught artist whose comic strips have been featured in national dailies and magazines since 2005. He is currently working as the Creative Director of Studio Dreamcatcher. When he is not working on animation projects, he spends his time drawing independent comics and collaborating with other artists and writers to create graphic novels.
Robbe Fred
France
L’ Astrolabe
Fred Robbe is the director of the Astrolabe, a popular Music venue in Orléans (region Centre) labelled by the ministry of Culture. He has been working with all the major professional actors in France. The venue (split in two gauges : Astrolabe : 620 seats and Astroclub : 220 seats) allows a huge variety of popular music shows to be played in Orléans by an eclectic line up (mainstream artists and prospective musics). The Astrolabe project integrates also the increasing number of artists and amateur musicians and leads actions of public development and cultural actions projects. The Astrolabe has been developing international cooperations (Reunion Island, Quebec, Tamil Nadu) with the Fraca-Ma, thanks to the collaboration of the Region Centre. Fred is the active partner of this long term lasting collaboration between Region Centre and Tamil Nadu, enabling the connections between all the french and indian professionals, and the Institut Français.
Baradwaj Rangan
India
The Hindu
Baradwaj Rangan is a film critic and Senior Deputy Editor at The Hindu. He won the National Award (Swarna Kamal) for Best Film Critic in 2005. His writings on cinema, music, art, books, travel and humour have been published in various magazines like Open, Tehelka, Biblio, Outlook and The Caravan. He has co-written the screenplay for the Tamil rom-com, Kadhal 2 Kalyanam. He teaches a course on cinema at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. Baradwaj has contributed to various anthologies, the most recent being an essay in Subramaniyapuram: The Tamil Film in English Translation. His first book, Conversations with Mani Ratnam, was published by Penguin in 2012. His second book, Dispatches From the Wall Corner, was published by Westland in 2014.
Rosella Stephen
India
Indulge
Rosella Stephen is a Chennai-based senior editor who, during a 17-year career, has earned the industry's respect for her role as a fashion and lifestyle commentator. During her stint at the Sunday Express Magazine, where she served as fashion and food editor, she launched Indulge, an entertainment and lifestyle magazine with The New Indian Express. It became the definitive guide to life in Chennai and its creative, progressive people. Two years later, she set up Indulge in Bangalore, giving readers a fresh perspective on a city they knew intimately. Editions in Coimbatore, Kochi and, more recently, in Hyderabad have strengthened the role Indulge plays in identifying how readers engage with the city in which they live. She helped create Edex, the national educational supplement with The New Indian Express. Diverse experiences, be it as the 2004 national winner of the London Fashion Week programme organised by British Council India, or a sabbatical during which she worked with a rapidly growing nonprofit in Singapore, have taught her to think critically and value collaboration skills. Indulge continues to explore the changing dynamic of leading cities in the country, together with their innovators, entrepreneurs, catalysts and creative minds.
Nikhil Udupa
India
Viacom 18 Pvt Ltd
Nikhil Udupa leads Marketing for MTV Indies and other MTV properties like Coke Studio, MTV Unplugged etc. With a career spanning digital media, music festivals and marine engineering he is perennially obsessed with the independent arts and music scene in the country. He is a part of Control ALT Delete - a DIY non profit initiative that aims to promote new sounds and new artists across the country on a self sustaining crowdfunded model. He can be found in front of the sound console at most gigs.
Mei-kwei Barker
India
British Council
Mei-kwei Barker has a rich experience of over 20 years with the British Council. Her last position was as Director of English, United Arab Emirates where she took the strategic lead for the Teaching Centre operations in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah and English as well as the English partnership work across the Emirates. Mei-kwei first joined British Council in Hong Kong where she worked as a teacher and has since held a number of senior positions in the British Council, managing operations in countries such as Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Egypt. The latter two gave her an opportunity to work within the Higher Education sector and in addition she has overseen Change Management portfolios across the full spectrum of British Council work in both Singapore and Egypt.
Prateek Prajosh
India
Director
Born in Kerala, raised in the Middle East, Prateek Prajosh’s interest for arts and film brought him back to India; but it was only after completion of his MBA in media and film did he decide to pursue film and theatre full time. After dropping out of film school, he came back to make his first feature documentary film, 'Only Sometimes A God'. Also a theatre enthusiast, he has performed in several plays since 2011 and made his TV debut by appearing on 'The Living Room’', a comedy central produced show that ran one season.
Dev Bhatia
India
UnMute
As the co-founder of UnMute – the pioneering music management and talent agency for electronic dance music in India – Dev has broken down many barriers to become an industry leader.UnMute manage and book a select group of quality Indian electronic DJs and Producers as well as serves as an agency for international artists in the Asian territory. Over and above, the agency also works with brands, music festivals and venues. But its ethos and philosophies are based on Dev’s work with Jalebee Cartel. As India’s leading electronic live act, Jalebee Cartel, gave Dev his first break in the music biz and he went on to manage them for 6 years. During his time with the Jalebee crew, he developed new techniques and formats to help artists as well as provide a bridge between venues, brands and talent. With UnMute, he’s applying those industry defining benchmarks and using it to nurture the careers of new DJ’s as well as push the boundaries of established artists.Considered an expert in Marketing, Social Media strategy and trends, Dev has also been a stage manager at India’s biggest music festivals and has spoken at various music conferences and workshops.
Dhruv Singh
India
Pagal Haina Records
Dhruv Singh is the founder and humble servant at Pagal Haina Records, an anti label based in New Delhi. A qualified filmmaker with over 10 years of experience in various roles across the creative arts including stints in theatre, event production, TV production, sports management and film production, he founded Pagal Haina in 2011 whilst working as a freelance video producer in Sydney, Australia. He moved back to India in the winter of 2012 to start working on Pagal Haina full time.
Ashutosh Phatak
India
The True School of Music
Ashu, as he is fondly referred to as, is a multi-instrumentalist performer and producer. With over 15 contemporary music albums in the last two decades to his name, he is a much-in demand composer in the advertising and films circles. He has composed music for over 4,000 television commercials and soundtrack for over 10 feature films, including critically acclaimed films like the Mahesh Bhatt-directed Tamanna (1997), Kaizad Gustad’s unorthodox Hindi comedy Bombay Boys (1998), the Rahul Bose-starrer White Noise (2004) and most recently, for the acclaimed documentary, Fire in the Blood (2013) which premiered at the celebrated Sundance Film Festival in 2013 Currently he is working on the Bollywood feature film Zubaan set to release sometime next year. He is also one of the founding partners of BlueFrog, a brand that single-handedly changed the face of the live independent music scene in India with currently 3 clubs around the country and a fourth under construction. Ashu, most recently in 2013, co-founded of the True School of Music, India’s first comprehensive institute of contemporary music. He has also has several awards to his name, an Ad Asia award for Amnesty International, Abby awards, IMA Big Star award, among others.
Radha Thomas
United States
Musician
Radha Thomas was born in Tamil Nadu, grew up in Mumbai and Delhi and then left for the USA to pursue her dream of becoming a jazz singer, and since has performed around the world. She has had three distinct careers: in music, as a writer and as Executive Vice President in charge of business development at Explocity.com, a media company. She has also written for many publications such as The Times of India, Midday, The Hindu, Man’s World, Men’s Health and others. She has recently completed a book called ‘The Cauliflower Diet’ which will be released by Penguin Random House in early 2015. Men On My Mind’ and ‘More Men on My Mind, were her first two novels, published by Rupa, and have received wide acclaim for being unconventional and edgy.
Dharshan Baskar
India
Actor / Producer
Dharshan Baskar is a result oriented professional with a Bachelor of Economics degree, Masters in Management and solid work experience in both Domestic and International Exposure in HR Branding, Global Policy Review; delivering strong Return on investment and strategic corporate concerns. The prospect of understanding today’s complex business environment excites him to understand its dynamics and real potential. He brings with him a unique blend of good communication and analytical skills, an ability to deal with people, dedication, hard work and a creative mindset to adapt to various situations.
Arjun Karthikeyan
India
Creative Director
Arjun Karthikeyan is a freelance Television and New Media Creative Director. He specialises in creating local entertainment content relevant to a South Indian audience. He works with content creation for all the South Indian languages, project management, production outlay, and creative execution.
