SCHEDULE

Kris Ahrend is the Chief Executive Officer of The MLC, where he leads the organization in its mission to ensure songwriters, composers, lyricists, and music publishers receive their mechanical royalties from streaming and download services in the U.S. accurately and on time. Under his direction, The MLC has already distributed more than $2 billion in total royalties to its Members since officially beginning operations in 2021.

Kris began his career holding positions in the Law Department at Sony Music & the Business & Legal Affairs Department at Sony BMG Music Entertainment. He also served as the President of U.S. Shared Services for Warner Music Group.

Kris has been named to Billboard magazine’s list of Change Agents and Power List and was named to Nashville Post’s list of the most influential people in 2023. Kris is a proud member of the Nashville business community, where he serves on the boards of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce and the Nashville Downtown Partnership and on the Executive Committee of the Recording Academy’s Entertainment Law Initiative.

Lockwood Barr’s musical talent and drive is embedded in her DNA, with a mother who performed with John Hartford and the Dillards and a dad who taught her banjo, and a cousin, Al Barr, who fronts the Dropkick Murphys. Lockwood Barr logs over 100 yearly shows all over the country.  She’s opened for artists and writers like Lori McKenna and Angaleena Presley (Pistol Annies), played in several festivals from Arizona to Mississippi to Key Largo, and regularly hosts rounds at the Bluebird Cafe.  She is thrilled to have a songwriting cut on Allie Colleen’s new record: Nicotine in the Nick of Time is set to be released in the Fall of 2024, and has already been a fan favorite during Allie’s tour with Lee Brice. Most recently, Lockwood has been writing new music with icon Jeff Silbar (“Wind Beneath My Wings”) and TV music savant Devin Powers (Powers Music Group) for an upcoming project.  Her banjo and background vocals can be heard on Bo Bice’s latest release, “Born of Heroes’ Blood,” tracked at Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals.  The song is currently up for a 2024 Hollywood Independent Music Award. Other successes include a 2019 Music Row Magazine “DISClaimer” feature for her banjo-centric single “6 Feet Deep,” a NIMA (Nashville Industry Music Award) win for Best Live Country Performer, and a cut (“Hold Me in Your Heart”) on Sarah Peacock’s record “Burn the Witch,” which was acclaimed in both Billboard and American Songwriter Magazine. Lockwood’s Summer 2020 single, “Helluva Habit,” received an exclusive feature in American Songwriter Magazine magazine.  In 2019, she teamed up Matt Odmark of Grammy Award-winning band Jars of Clay and newcomer Ryan Youmans to release 3 new singles, including an original Christmas duet, “Christmas in Memphis” with NBC’s The Voice alum, Barrett Baber.   “Christmas in Memphis” was hailed by “Saving Country Music” alongside Kacey Musgrave’s “A Very Kacey Christmas” as one of the top “Country and Roots Christmas Releases for 2019”.  Catch Lockwood Barr on tour this year solo, with Jessie G, and with her trio, Sequoia South!  And follow her new series of banjo comedy videos on instagram: @musicbylockwood  

Matthew Beckett is a partner in the Nashville, Tennessee firm Milom Crow Kelley Beckett Shehan, PLC. Matthew has represented clients in all facets of the music industry, such as recording artist, songwriters, music publishers, record companies, record producers, managers and executives. He has been active in the music industry since 1985 and has been practicing law since 2007.

Early in his career, he was a production assistant on albums by Hank Williams, Jr., Lee Roy Parnell, Delbert McClinton, and Asleep at the Wheel. He worked in music publishing in the 1990's, owning a publishing company that earned multiple ASCAP and BMI awards. After selling the company's catalog, he worked as a recording engineer on several Grammy nominated albums by artists Aaron Neville, The Oak Ridge Boys, and the Gaither Vocal Band.

Matthew's perspective on the music industry began before his career. He grew up near Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where his father, Barry Beckett, was a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, a partner at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios and a renowned record producer. Because of Barry's productions, Matthew crossed paths with many industry greats, including Atlantic Records co-founder Jerry Wexler, Bob Dylan, Bob Seger, Dire Straits, Glen Frey, and the group Alabama.

Vivian Aguiar-Buff is an Emmy Award-winning Music Supervisor, originally from São Paulo, Brazil. She currently works as Director Of Music at DreamWorks Animation. Vivian founded her own film scoring/music supervision studio - 1M1 Arte - composing award winning scores for several Brazilian blockbusters and international feature films, TV series and other audiovisual projects. She also worked as an independent Music Editor/Additional Writer in the Los Angeles film industry. She gained her experience working at Remote Control Productions collaborating on many scores such as Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain Phillips, and Academy Award winning Big Hero 6 among many others. She graduated in Film from the Brazilian college FAAP, and in Composition/Film Scoring and Conducting from Berklee College of Music.

Rick Carnes is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, and moved to Nashville with his wife, Janis, in 1978. Soon after, the duo signed their first record deal with RCA Records, later recording for Elektra Asylum, Warner Bros and MCA Records. In 1983, Carnes wrote Reba McEntire’s first #1 hit “ I Can’t Even Get The Blues No More” and co-wrote with Janis and Chip Harding three top ten hits for the Whites: “You Put The Blues in Me”, “Hanging Around”, and “Pins And Needles”.

An exclusive staff writer with peermusic Nashville, recent cuts include: Garth Brooks’ “Longneck Bottle”, included on both Sevens and Double Live and selling in excess of 18 million copies; Steve Wariner’s “Burnin’ The Roadhouse Down” and ”If You Don’t Know it by Now”; and Alabama’s “when it All Goes South”. He has also had success with recordings by Dean Martin, Conway Twitty, Karen Brooks, Loretta Lynn, Lacy J. Dalton, Johnny Rodriguez, Janie Fricke. Ronnie McDowell, T.G. Sheppard, Pam Tillis and many others.

The Songwriters Guild Of America (SGA) knows American music has been the backbone of entertainment exports to the rest of the world, a major foundation of America’s gross national product and, most importantly, a cultural touch stone of our emotions, memories and lives. Since 1931, the SGA has sought to protect this valuable commodity by ensuring that those who make music, and songwriting, their career are able to do so at a wage that allows them to care for themselves and their families. The Songwriters Guild of America carries out its mission through legislative advocacy, services to professional and developing songwriters and via its non-profit, charitable Foundation.

George Clinton has scored over 100 films in his 45 year career, most notably Austin Powers and it’s sequels; Disney’s The Santa Clause sequels; Mortal Kombat 1 & 2; and the Emmy Award winning Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.

Born and raised in Chattanooga Tennessee, he began his professional musical career as a singer/songwriter in Nashville writing for Tree Music and doing session work while studying music and drama at MTSU in Murfreesboro. Upon graduation, he moved to LA, became a staff songwriter for Warner Brothers Music (with songs recorded by the likes of Michael Jackson and Joe Cocker) and did 4 albums as a recording artist. It was his The George Clinton Band Arrives album that attracted the attention of Cheech and Chong, giving him the chance to score his very first film Still Smokin’ He knew from then on that film scoring would be his life.

Clinton served on the board of the SCL in LA, was Chair of Film Scoring at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, was an advisor at the Sundance Composers Lab, and was elected to the Music Executive Branch of AMPAS (The Oscars).

Awards include the SCL Ambassador Award, the Spirit of Tennessee Award, Grammy and Emmy nominations, and nine BMI Film Music Awards, including their highest honor, the BMI Icon Award for career achievement. 

Lauren Conklin is a composer known for her organic textures, emotional melodies, and lush strings. She began composing full-time in 2019 after landing her first feature film, As Real As You Make It produced by American Pantheon (directed by Joseph Nelms), which is now streaming on Amazon. She has also scored feature films Abigail (American Pantheon/Joseph Nelms) and Life and Death (Chameleon Film Studios), as well as the winning short from Nashville’s 48 Hour Film Festival, An Immersive Guide to Pruning (Lux & Vayll), and the audiobook trailers for international bestseller Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series.

Lauren began her career as a touring strings and utility player and has performed at venues from the Royal Albert Concert Hall to the Grand Ole Opry and on television programs including The Colbert Show, The CMT Awards, and The Today Show. Her sound combines classical orchestration with world folk influences as she draws upon the musical cultures she visited and studied during her time touring internationally. As well as scoring films, Lauren has arranged and recorded strings for artists such as Lukas Graham, Russell Dickerson, Kylie Morgan, Skylar Astin, Girl Named Tom, and New Hope Club.

Ray Costa is the founder and president of Costa Communications, the premier public relations, marketing, and consulting firm representing composers and songwriters in visual media. Formerly an award-winning broadcast journalist, Costa brings his experience to every project with his ability to find entertaining and newsworthy angles to pique the interest of reporters, editors, and producers. Ray Costa along with Costa Communications has represented such high-profile composers ranging from multi-award winners Alan Menken and Marvin Hamlisch to contemporary composers Alexandre Desplat, Justin Hurwitz, Atticus Ross, Ludwig Goransson, Michael Abels, Robbie Robertson, and Steven Price, and new discoveries including Junkie XL, Antonio Sanchez, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Simon Franglen, and Kris Bowers. Costa Communications has also represented the songwriters behind such hits as One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful,” Nikki Minaj’s “Starships,” Sara Bareilles’ “Love Song,” and the Oscar® nominated song “Lost Stars” written by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisbois, performed by Adam Levine for Begin Again. Additionally, Costa has been commissioned for Oscar campaigns for songwriters including Billie Eilish, FINNEAS, H.E.R., Drake, Travis Scott, Rhianna, Taylor Swift, Carole King, Beyoncé, Brian Wilson, Van Morrison, Kendrik Lamar, Pasek & Paul, Justin Timberlake, Elton John & Bernie Taupin, Diane Warren, Lady Gaga, The Weeknd, and more. Costa Communications has been contracted directly for awards campaigns with virtually every major studio including Warner Bros, Apple, Sony, MGM/UAR, Amazon Studios, Disney, Netflix, The Weinstein Company, Dreamworks, Fox, Universal, IFC, and Paramount. The firm’s award campaigns have successfully yielded nominations and wins for Oscars®, Golden Globes, Grammys, Tonys, Emmys, BAFTAs and other prestigious accolades. For over 20 years, Costa Communications has been the official public relations firm of the Society Of Composers & Lyricists.

Ray Costa is a member of ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. He is a voting member of The Television Academy, The Recording Academy, and the Motion Picture Academy. He has advised leading publications regarding panels and concerts including The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film and TV Music Conference, Deadline Sound & Screen Concerts, and Variety Music for Screens. He is an advisor for the World Soundtrack Awards (Ghent, Belgium), The SCL Awards, The Golden Globes, the International Film Music Critics Association, the Transatlantyk Film and Music Festival (Lodj, Poland), Krakow Film Music Festival, and the Middleburg Film Festival (Middleburg, Virginia). Ray Costa is also a co-founder of the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, Fimucité (Tenerife), MOSMA (Malaga, Spain) and the Apulia Film Music Festival (Apulia, Italy). 

Costa Communications has represented pro-bono non-profits including Education Through Music – Los Angeles, the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, and Hollywood Heart. The firm has expanded to video production through news featurettes for clients that have been featured on Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. During COVID, Ray Costa was commissioned to produce a Film Music Summit as part of the Cannes Film Festival including live streaming concerts. He also Co-Executive produced the Emmy nominated Variety Special, Soundtrack of Our Lives, featuring celebrities and icons of TV and Film music. Additionally, he consulted with Brazilian performing rights organizations and attorneys to connect nearly two million dollars in royalty payments with American composers and songwriters.

David Das is a prolific composer, music producer, and songwriter based in Los Angeles. His experience covers the range from feature films, TV shows, cartoons, commercials, trailers, and other media work, over to modern music production, choral and orchestral writing/arranging, and more. He has worked on projects for Lionsgate, 20th Century Fox, CollegeHumor, Funny or Die, DirecTV, Dreamworks, Fremantle, Intel, BBDO, HBO, PBS, TLC, Telemundo, Weight Watchers, Coca Cola, Hal Leonard, and many others. He has composed music for dozens of TV shows, scored films (such as Lionsgate’s feature thriller The Appearing and the drama Trafficked), worked on music teams (Jordan Peele's US, HBO's Allen v. Farrow, both with composer Michael Abels), and written and produced songs for numerous pop, rock, R&B, soul, and indie artists. He serves as President of the Academy of Scoring Arts, and is also involved with or has spoken on panels with the Society of Composers and Lyricists, BMI, Television Academy (Emmys), NAMM, IMSTA, and the Production Music Association.

With a background in pop and jazz but schooled in the classical tradition, David has lived and studied all over the world, including the U.S., England, Italy, and Singapore. He earned his degree in classical piano and conducting from the University of North Texas, and during that time was a member of the award-winning Jazz Singers. Later seasons in both Nashville and in his current home of Los Angeles brought opportunities to tour as a keyboard player, arranger, producer and musical director for such diverse artists as Grammy-winning singer Rebecca St. James, American Idol superstar Katharine McPhee, Rachael Yamagata, Mark Ballas, Israel Houghton, The Voice’s Amber Carrington, Ginny Owens, Margaret Becker, Rachael Lampa, Tori Kelly, Bryan Duncan, Ryan Farish, and many others. His television writing includes theme music for Nick Jr’s Parental Discretion, Supreme Justice with Judge Karen, The Young Icons, and additional music for dozens of shows ranging from the animated Dreamworks series VeggieTales in the House, American Idol, Amish Mafia, FOX Football Daily, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, HBO’s Homeland, Pawn Stars, Say Yes to the Dress, The Sing-Off, So You Think You Can Dance, and many more. He has done sound design work for Big Fish Audio, MOTU, and Native Instruments.

Mark Evitts is an accomplished American composer, songwriter, musician, and producer working across the television, film and music industries. Most recently, Mark served as composer and songwriter for the new Apple TV+ animated series Frog and Toad, based on the best-selling children’s book. The score features a memorable musical palette highlighted by Dixieland banjos and fiddles, alongside swing clarinets and Hot Club guitar. Following his early career work as a road musician playing with country music artists, Mark has established himself as a versatile songwriter and composer. His songwriting credits include co-writing Nas' single "Brunch on Sundays,” which he also performed on, from the Grammy-nominated album King's Disease II and The Game's single "Violence".

In addition to his songwriting and composing work, Mark has served as an arranger and musician on several hit television shows such as NBC's SMASH, notably on Emmy-nominated song "Voice In A Dream.” Other projects he has contributed to creatively include ABC’s The Bachelor and Blood and Oil, CMT’s Nashville, BBC One's documentary Love In A Day, and SVT's award-winning documentary series Jill's Veranda. He has also contributed additional music to the score of the Netflix feature Arlo the Alligator Boy for composer Alex Geringas.

As a multi-instrumentalist, Mark has also performed on prestigious stages worldwide, including The Grand Ole Opry and Carnegie Hall. He has developed a unique sound that he incorporates into his own projects and has provided samples of these authentic sounds to create music software and virtual instrument companies like Output's Arcade.

Tim Federle is an Emmy and DGA-nominated writer, director, and producer. He collaborated closely with composer Gabriel Mann on HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES, which he created for Disney+, and on the film BETTER NATE THAN EVER, which he wrote and directed for the same service.

Alex Flores joined Hello Sunshine as the Executive Vice-President of Music in 2023, where she is responsible for expanding Hello Sunshine’s IP into the music space. In addition to building the music division, Alex is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Music Supervision, Publishing, Soundtracks, and curation of music talent for AV properties.

Previously, Alex served as Senior Vice President, Creative Worldwide at Broadcast Music, Inc.  In this role, she oversaw the Creative teams throughout BMI’s offices in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, Austin, and Europe helping to support the Company’s songwriting community and cultivate key industry relationships. She developed and executed strategies across all offices, genres and platforms that ensured BMI’s position as the number one PRO in the music business.  

Before joining BMI, Alex held various positions at BMG, including Senior Vice President of Marketing, North America. In this role, she managed the day-to-day operations of the U.S. Synch Marketing teams while continuing to secure placements for BMG’s repertoire across all media platforms.  She also worked closely with international counterparts, songwriters, producers and artists to maximize synch opportunities in the U.S., as well as acquire talent and renew deals.  Alex joined BMG in 2012 as a Director, Marketing, Film & Television where she was responsible for placing music in films, TV shows and soundtracks.  She also held positions of increasing responsibility at Walt Disney Studios, Universal Pictures and Univision Music Group. Alex has a MFA from Loyola Marymount University and a BA from Universidad Iberoamericana Noroeste. 

2021 LAMC (Latin Alternative Music Conference) – Wonder Women of Latin Music

2020 Billboard Women in Music Executives

2016 All Access Power Player 

Danny Gray is an internationally awarded composer dedicated to using music as a powerful storytelling tool across various media.

With music placements in nearly two thousand episodes of major network television, Danny's notable credits include Dateline and Today (NBC), 20/20 and Good Morning America (ABC), and a diverse range of travel and nature shows on Animal Planet, NatGeo, History, and Netflix. His extensive catalog of production music is published by 4 Elements Music, Arketype, HAUS Music, West One Music Group, and Evolution Media Music. As a film composer, he was honored as an OTICONS Faculty Film Music Award Finalist, and his score for the 2017 feature film One Penny earned a nomination for Best Original Score at the World Music and Independent Film Festival.

Beyond film and television, Danny has created concert music and interactive soundtracks that blend orchestra, choir, dance, and multimedia elements.  His compositions have been commissioned and premiered by the Chelsea Symphony, Australian Boys Choir, and Manhattan Choral Ensemble, and have enhanced theme park attractions and holiday light shows across North America.

A graduate of the Purchase College Conservatory of Music, Danny is also a Board Member of the Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) and serves as the director of the SCL New York Mentorship Program, supporting media composers in the early stages of their careers.

Kenny Greenberg is a renowned guitar player, producer, and songwriter based in Nashville, Tennessee. He operates out of his studio, House of Greenberg, which serves as a creative hub for both Kenny and the artists he collaborates with.

Kenny's notable roles and accomplishments include:

• Musical Director for the 2024 NBC Toby Keith Special
• Producer and Musical Director of CMT's concert series, Skyville Live
• Writer of the Skyville Live theme song
• Writer and producer of the closing credits song for the Liam Neeson movie, Ice Road
• Three-time Grammy Award-winning producer
• Writer of four number-one songs
• 2012 Academy of Country Music Guitarist of the Year
• Producer of the Academy Award-nominated song "Soft Place to Fall" for the movie Horse Whisperer

Kenny has worked with many of the top artists in country music, including Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson, Taylor Swift, Wynonna, Miranda Lambert, Elle King, and Faith Hill. His exceptional guitar work is also featured in projects with legends like Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt, Amy Grant, Buddy Guy, Jewel, Etta James, and many others.

Jonathan Grow is a Nashville-based pianist and media composer. His career in Nashville spans more than twenty-five years as a vocalist, pianist, and songwriter. He began his transition to professional media composition in 2019. His work as a composer focuses in the areas of production music, sync licensing, advertising, and short films. He currently works as a composer for production companies Howling Music and Bigger Story Music. Jonathan is a member of SCL Nashville’s Steering Committee and chairs SCL’s Seminars Committee for Nashville. Jonathan is a husband, father to three children, and has two dogs. His passion is for telling stories that move and connect people to their own stories through the medium of music.

Emmy® award-winner, Ashley Irwin, has written music for over 1,000 hours of film and television, and more than 3,000 commercials. He relocated from his native Australia to the U.S.A. in 1990 after a successful career in theatre, records, advertising and television.

He began his endless quest to understand the complexities of music licensing and associated contracts, as the in-house producer and A&R manager for an independent record label in Sydney, started his first publishing company in 1989 and currently maintains publishing entities at ASCAP, BMI and APRA.

In 1998 he was awarded Best Feature Film Score by the Australian Guild of Screen Composers for his score to the restored silent classic The White Hell of Piz Palü and the following year commissioned by the British Film Archives to write a new score to Alfred Hitchcock’s silent classic The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, in honor of the great director’s 100th anniversary. Both these films continue to be performed in film-live concerts throughout the world.

In 2006, Ashley received a G.A.N.G. award for EA’s The Godfather video game, based on the Academy Award-winning film.

Well known for his collaborations with Oscar® winners Clint Eastwood and Bill Conti, Ashley has arranged and composed music for 22 Academy Awards shows several Emmys® and Grammys®, as well a slew of other TV variety shows. He was Musical Director for the inaugural Screen Actors Guild Awards and for the American Giving Awards, both for NBC.

In 2015 Ashley recreated the songs of Peter Allen for the mini-series Peter Allen: Not the Boy Next Door and was nominated for both AACTA and APRA-AMCOSawards. 

He is an official APRA-AMCOS Ambassador, is co-chair of Music Creators North America, and has been president of the Society of Composers & Lyricists for the past 11 years where he is currently in his 6th 2-year term.

Amanda Jones is an Emmy Award Winning Composer who is rapidly becoming a standout voice amongst a new generation of television and film composers.

Jones’ original music can be heard on the episodes South Africa and Long Island for Apple TV+’s documentary series Home Season 2 for which she received a 2023 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition and Direction. Maine from Apple TV+’s documentary series Home Season 1 was her first Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Music Composition For A Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score). Jones has the distinction of being the first African American female to be nominated in the Primetime Emmy score category. Jones’ television credits also include HBO's Duplass Bros. comedy Somebody Somewhere, Freeform’s Good Trouble, HBO Max's Adventure Time: Fionna and Cake, Adventure Time Distant Lands: Obsidian and Together Again, HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show, produced by Robin Thede and Issa Rae, CW's series Naomi, the Ba'al Episode of Ryan Murphy's American Horror Stories on FX, OWN’s anthology series Cherish the Day, produced by Ava DuVernay, BET’s Twenties, produced by Lena Waithe, Adult Swim comedy series Beef House, for which she wrote the main title theme, Nat Geo / Disney + Docu-series Supernatural Planet executive produced by James Cameron and narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch and HBO Max & Sony Pictures Animation’s series, Young Love.

In addition to her television credits, Jones’ recent films include Moving On, directed by Oscar winning director Paul Weitz starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Netflix’s The Perfect Find, the upcoming animated feature Jodie starring Tracee Ellis Ross and Mea Culpa, directed by Tyler Perry and starring Kelly Rowland for Netflix. Her past film credits include the HBO Max Documentary Feature Dreamland: The Rise and Fall of Black Wall Street, Duplass Bros’ produced feature 7 Days, the Netflix feature Definition Please, starring Levar Burton directed by Sujata Day, Unexpected directed by David Hunt, Menelek Lumumba’s award-winning drama 1 Angry Black Man, Andre Hormann’s documentary feature Ringside and Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan’s Oscar-nominated documentary short St. Louis Superman.

Jones has a BA in music from Vassar College where she studied music composition, production and classical guitar under Terry Champlin. She also has certificates in both film scoring and orchestration from Berklee College of Music. Jones performs as the singer and guitarist of the Los Angeles based indie rock band, The Anti-Job. Their music has been air-played on multiple radio stations including BBC Radio and NPR.

Originally from Tasmania, Australia, Catherine Joy is a composer, music producer, community leader and educator. She's received multiple awards and nominations including best score for the doc Gold Balls, an ASCAP Composers Choice Award nomination for Naughty Books and the David Raksin SCL Emerging Talent award for Home Is A Hotel.  She has scored a number of Romantic Comedies for Reel One Entertainment including Love Gala, Luckless in Love and Romantic Rewrite, two thrillers for Lifetime, additional music for Disney, HBO, Hulu, Sony, Discovery and History channel TV shows. One of her favorite projects to date was scoring a Sesame Street Letter segment. Catherine has also produced scoring sessions for acclaimed projects such as A24’s Minari, UNTOLD on Netflix, Hulu’s Death and Other Details, HBO’s Edge of the Earth and most recently the new JJ Abrams Apple TV series Presumed Innocent. Catherine is the founder and CEO of Joy Music House, a full service score production company. She was the President of the Alliance for Women Film Composers from 2021-2023 and now serves on the Advisory board, and she is Adjunct Faculty for the NYU Steinhardt Screen Scoring Masters program.

Kourtney Kirkpatrick is VP of Sync at Concord Music Publishing, where she heads up the Television and Trailer/Promo divisions.  Working to pitch and license the songs of Concord writers, she represents iconic catalogs such as those of Mark Ronson, Trent Reznor, Phil Collins, John Fogerty, Robert Johnson, Cyndi Lauper, Rodgers & Hammerstein, and more. Throughout her career, Kourtney has also worked to sign and develop artist-writers such as Ruelle, who, for the past 5 years, has been ranked as one of the top synced artists on Tunefind’s year-end chart.  In her time at Concord, she and her team have secured a number of notable syncs in shows such as Ted Lasso, Atlanta, Ozark, Hacks, Bridgerton, & Grey’s Anatomy, as well as Trailer/Promo uses across the networks of Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Apple, Amazon, Starz, and brands such as XBOX and Microsoft. In 2020, Kourtney was named to Billboard’s 40 Under 40 List. Prior to Concord, Kourtney worked as Senior Director of Film/TV at Razor & Tie, and Creative Director of Sync at Big Yellow Dog Music.

Ryan Lott is a composer, producer, and performer. In 2007, Ryan founded Son Lux, releasing music that “works at the nexus of several rarely-overlapping Venn Diagrams” (Pitchfork). In 2014, Son Lux became a trio, both live and on record, with the additions of guitarist-composer Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang. Their latest studio release is an album trilogy called Tomorrows, released in full in 2021. As a band, Son Lux scored the 2023 Best Picture Winner Everything Everywhere All at Once, which earned them a BAFTA and Academy Award nomination, with a second Academy Award nomination for their end-credit song collaboration with Mitski and David Byrne.

An avid collaborator in dance, Lott has worked with choreographers Stephen Petronio, Gina Gibney, Kyle Abraham, and Jodie Gates, along with companies The Royal Ballet, Ballet de Lorraine, National Dance Company of Wales, and BalletX. His feature film scores include The Greatest Hits (2024), Mean Dreams (2017), Paper Towns (2015), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2014), and arrangements for several others, most notably the iconic sci-fi film Looper (2012), for which Ryan was also pianist and instrument designer.

He is frequently commissioned by new music ensembles, including eighth blackbird (Lott contributed to their GRAMMY-winning 2015 release Filament), GRAMMY winners Third Coast Percussion, and yMusic, who enlisted Lott to compose their entire 2017 release First. Other recent commissions include an arrangement of "Peace Like A River" for Paul Simon, and a new orchestral work, "The Swift & the Storm," for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He has several releases under his own name, including the learning structures cycle and the original Tell Me Why game soundtrack, heralded as “the new gold standard for trans characters in games.”

Lauren Lucas is a South Carolina native and a proud Belmont University alumna. An Academy of Country Music and Tony Award nominee, you have heard Lauren’s songs on Broadway (Urban Cowboy), TV and film (ABC network, feature films), and on other artist’s projects, such as Danielle Peck, Damien Horne and Risa Binder, to name a few. As a touring artist, Lauren has shared stages with Kenny Chesney, Old Dominion, Blake Shelton, Billy Currington, Maroon 5, The Bacon Brothers (Kevin & Michael), and many more. She spent nearly three years touring with the all-female harmony band, Farewell Angelina and penned several songs on their latest EP. Lucas has released a string of new projects of her own in recent years. Most recently, inspired by the Trio albums of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt, Lucas released a trio album of her own called, Lo-Fi Dolly. Covering country hits from the 1970’s-1990’s, she joins veteran Nashville songwriters Sara Beck and Kimberly Quinn for this self-produced, harmony-drenched collaboration.

Find tour dates, music and more informa.on at www.laurenlucas.com .

Gabriel Mann is equally comfortable in drama and comedy, scoring, songwriting and production. He wrote the iconic theme and scored the award-winning hit comedy series Modern Family, and is currently writing, singing, and producing songs and score for ABC’s breakout drama A Million Little Things. He’s also working on songs and score for season two of Disney+’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and the second season of CBS’ The Unicorn. Next up is ABC’s new Erin Brockovich drama Rebel from Grey’s Anatomy’s Krista Vernhoff, due out spring 2021. Mann’s score for the Sundance Channel’s acclaimed prison drama Rectify was dubbed “remarkable” and “hypnotic” by Time magazine. He scored and wrote the original songs for Nickelodeon’s School of Rock, and scored the indie feature Humor Me, written and directed by Sam Hoffman of Madam Secretary and Old Jews Telling Jokes. In video games, Mann scored Saboteur, Timeshift, The Mummy, Leisure Suit Larry, and The Legend of Spyro series for Vivendi Universal and Activision/Blizzard, and in the world of animation he composed and wrote songs for Dawn of the Croods from Dreamworks Animation, as well as The Legend of the 3 Caballeros for Disney+ with longtime collaborator Rebecca Kneubuhl. Mann produced Sara Bareilles’ first album Careful Confessions, was the resident songwriter on Fox’s Arrested Development and opened for Alanis Morissette as a solo artist on tour through Europe. He opened for the legendary Rolling Stones in England while touring with Tim Burgess of The Charlatans, sang on a Jack In The Box Superbowl ad in Spanish, and is a featured vocalist in Office Space and The Lorax. Gabriel backed up Adele  on the 2013 Academy Awards, sang on a Muse album, and played a Christmas vs. Hanukkah show with Katy Perry. 

Mann has won countless ASCAP and SESAC Film and Television Awards, including 2015’s highest performance credits overall. He was a part of the Lester Sills Songwriter Workshop, and participated in the ASCAP Songwriter Residency in partnership with America SCORES, for which he co-wrote and recorded a song with students at Braddock Elementary School. He was also asked to compose for ABC’s Yellow Ribbon Campaign, where composers were paired with filmmakers from the armed forces.

Between his busy schedule composing music and lending his vocals for various projects, Mann finds time to make his own solo albums, a series of yoga/massage/chillout records with side project Vive, and plays shows and records with The Rescues, whose songs appear throughout film and television. He is quickly becoming known in the world of Jewish music as well, adding a modern spin to traditional texts and writing and performing with his daughter Piper Rose, Ben Platt, and his brothers Henry and Jonah.

On Saturdays you will likely find him in a yellow shirt refereeing his kids’ soccer games, and/or dining at the Apple Pan on Pico Boulevard.

Keith Mason is the Coordinator of Music Technology for Belmont University’s College of Music and Performing Arts. He joined the Belmont faculty in 1998 where he teaches courses and develops curriculum in the areas of digital musicianship with a focus on music for media. Keith has more than 38 years of experience in the Nashville music industry where he has served as a label director, creative director, consultant, and staff producer for various production companies. He has also been a professional consultant for many educational institutions in assisting with program and curriculum development in the areas of music technology in education.

As a professional music producer, musician, composer, arranger, and digital musician, Keith has produced music for numerous advertising agencies, record labels, and publishers. His productions have won numerous awards from Advertising Federations as well as being the executive producer for the GMA Dove Award Winning album Sing Me to Sleep, Daddy.

Keith has been an active member for CMS (College Music Society), TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators) and ATMI (Association of Technology in Music Instruction), The GenNext program (a collaboration between NAMM and The College Music Society), and the MIDI Association’s “MIDI in Music Education” committee. He also serves on the steering committee for the Nashville Chapter of The Society of Composers & Lyricists.

Brent McCorkle is a director, writer, and composer who makes films that are known for their heartfelt and visually compelling storytelling. Brent’s latest movie, Jesus Revolution, was theatrically released in the United States on February 24, 2023, by Lionsgate. The film received a 99% favourable audience rating and grossed $53 million domestically against a production budget of $15 million. 

Prior to co-directing Jesus Revolution, Brent co-wrote, co-edited, directed 2nd unit, and composed the original score on the Kingdom Story Company Lionsgate hit, I Can Only Imagine. The faith-based family film starred Dennis Quaid and J. Michael Finley, was theatrically released in 2018, and grossed over $83 million at the box office.

McCorkle’s feature film directorial debut was the biographical drama Unconditional, which starred Michael Ealy and Lynn Collins. In addition to writing, directing, editing, and co-scoring the film, Unconditional was also nominated for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture by the NAACP Image Awards in 2013. A credited screenwriter on Unconditional and I Can Only Imagine, Brent has also composed original scores for Unconditional, I Can Only Imagine, Woodlawn, Steve McQueen: American Icon, Johnny Cash: Redemption, and Unsung Hero.

Brent currently resides on a farm in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, their five children, dogs, cats, chickens, honeybees, and goats.

Bear McCreary is a two-time GRAMMY® Award-nominated, Emmy and BAFTA Award-winning composer who  began his career as a protégé of legendary film composer Elmer Bernstein, before bursting onto the scene scoring the influential and revered series Battlestar Galactica in 2004. Since then, McCreary has been a four-time Emmy Award nominee and Emmy winner for Outstanding Original Main Title Theme for Da Vinci’s Demons, a musical palindrome that sounds the same forwards and backwards, and has won multiple International Film Music Critics Association Awards. He has been named the 23rd Most Definitive Bear in Popular Culture by the Ringer and has also been the subject of a clue on Jeopardy! Recent projects include the Amazon Original hit series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power; Foundation for Apple TV+; the beloved Starz series Outlander; Netflix’s Academy Award-nominated documentary Crip Camp (produced by Barack and Michelle Obama); Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla: King of the Monsters; Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot Films’ 10 Cloverfield Lane; AMC’s global phenomenon The Walking Dead; Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; and the video game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge for Disney. McCreary’s acclaimed scores to Sony PlayStation’s blockbusters God of War and God of War Ragnarök have earned him honors including a GRAMMY® Award nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and awards from the Game Awards, the D.I.C.E. Awards, the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, the International Film Music Critics Association, the ASCAP Composers Choice Awards, and the BAFTA Games Awards.

In 2024, McCreary released The Singularity, an epic hard-rock concept album and accompanying graphic novel. The album, which he first began writing as a teenager, features a legendary lineup of rock talent, including Slash, Serj Tankian (System of a Down), Corey Taylor (Slipknot), Rufus Wainwright, and many more. The Singularity was co-written and co-produced by McCreary’s brother, Brendan McCreary, who is also the album’s primary vocalist. The accompanying story is revealed on the album in three spoken-word monologues lifted directly from the graphic novel, performed by celebrated actors Lee Pace (Foundation, The Hobbit), Danai Gurira (Black Panther, The Walking Dead), and Ryan Hurst (Sons of Anarchy, God of War Ragnarök).

McCreary has long enjoyed collaborating with artists from across the musical spectrum, including Hozier, Fiona Apple, Shirley Manson (Garbage), and the late Sinéad O’Connor. He has composed concert commissions for the Calder Quartet and Getty Center, the Hagen Philharmonic and Ballet in Germany, the Television Academy, the Seattle Symphony, and the Golden State Pops Orchestra. In July 2014, Maestro Gustavo Dudamel conducted a suite of McCreary’s music with the L.A. Philharmonic and L.A. Master Chorale at the Hollywood Bowl.

Pat McMakin has spent over 40 years in the music industry and has worked successfully as a recording engineer, record producer, songwriter, GM of Sony Tree Studios, and GM Tree Productions (Sony/ATV’s music production/ artist development company) and Director of Operations Ocean Way Nashville. He has worked with a wide variety of artists including Ray Charles, Dolly Parton, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Brooks and Dunn, Lonestar, Brenda Lee, N’Sync, Steve Martin, Willie Nelson, and countless other artists, producers and songwriters. McMakin has produced and engineered in a wide variety of musical genres including country, rock, pop, jazz, and classical music. He was employed at Sony/ATV for over 25 years.

In March of 2008 McMakin assumed the leadership of Belmont University’s Ocean Way Nashville Recording Studios where he currently serves as Director of Operations. The studios are considered among the very best in Nashville and compete globally for all styles of recording.

McMakin was instrumental in building the music scoring business in Nashville starting in 2009. By 2017, due to the hard work of McMakin and many colleagues, Tennessee passed a State law offering incentives for Media music scoring across the state. He continues to build relationships in the scoring sector and look for ways to grow media composition opportunities in Tennessee and beyond.

Teri Nelson Carpenter is a music industry veteran. Her executive experience includes a background in performing rights management and overseeing major studio and network television music departments. Ms. Carpenter’s experience in creating, protecting and monetizing music copyrights is well known and has earned her the highest level of respect worldwide. Ms. Carpenter is currently the President & CEO of Reel Muzik Werks, LLC, which is an innovative full-service independent music publisher specializing in music for Film & TV and international rights management. RMW provides Global Writer/Publisher Administration, Licensing & Clearance and Music Supervision for all Media. RMW services include management of Performance, Mechanical, Neighboring and Secondary Rights. As the executive in charge of network television music at Fox Family Worldwide/Saban Entertainment, Ms. Carpenter was responsible for overseeing the Fox Family/Saban's global music business. Prior to that Ms. Carpenter served as a Music Administration & Production Executive at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM Studios). Before that she was the Director of Music at Academy Award Winning Indie Company, Hemdale Film Corp. Ms. Carpenter began her career at Broadcast Music Inc. in Film/TV relations. She spent much of her time at BMI working directly with composers, publishers and content creators in providing assistance with their global performing rights concerns.

Ms. Carpenter is also an in-demand speaker at conferences around the globe, including SXSW in Austin, TX; Canadian Music Week in Toronto; the AIMP Indie Music Publishing Summit in New York City; NATPE, Miami, Music biz Nashville, All About Music in Mumbai, India; Output Belfast Music Conference; IMRO’s Business of Music Seminar Dublin, Ireland, AEDEM in Barcelona, Spain, MIDEM, Cannes France and Vancouver International Film Festival emphasizing her status as a key member of the international music community. She was recently tapped by the U.S. State Department to be a mentor and speaker at the Global Entrepreneur Summit in Hyderabad, India whose theme “Women First, Prosperity For All” involved women from over 160 countries.

Ms. Carpenter holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance & Composition from Cal State Long Beach where she graduated with honors. Her post graduate studies included extension courses at UCLA in International Business and she is also a recurring guest lecturer in the music department at UCLA. Ms. Carpenter is a recent two-term President of the California Copyright Conference and Finance Chair of the Board of Directors of the Copyright Alliance in Washington, D.C. Currently, Ms. Carpenter serves as a member of the Independent Publishers Advisory Counsel for the NMPA. She is also the LA Chapter President and former National Chair of the Association of Independent Music Publishers and serves on the Executive Board of the Independent Music Publishers International Forum. Ms. Carpenter is a member of the Joint Project Lead at CISAC which governs all X-Industry music projects. She is also an active member of the Society Publisher Forum where she lends her experience in many groups including the A/V working groups along with serving on the Steering Committee & Working Group for CIS-Net a FastTrack / CISAC global music database project. Finally, Ms. Carpenter is a proud member of Leadership Music Class of 2022. 

Satoshi Noguchi is a music mixer and engineer based in Nashville, Tennessee, specializing in film, television, video games, live production, and albums. After more than a decade in Los Angeles and New York City, the Seattle native has worked on a wide array of projects from blockbusters to independent features. He has extensive experience in studio recording and mixing worldwide, as well as live sound.

Select music mixing projects include: Everything Everywhere All At Once (Oscar winner for best picture), World of Mickey Mouse (Emmy nominated), Cat Burglar (Emmy winner), Elden Ring, Schmigadoon! (Emmy nominated miniseries), the album Eva Cassidy and the London Symphony Orchestra, Old, Roy G Biv (an installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art), The Personal History of David Copperfield (IFMCA winner), and Lion. In 2013 Satoshi was nominated for a CAS mixing award for Explosions in the Sky's score for Lone Survivor. From 2009 to 2013 Satoshi worked as a staff engineer at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Productions where he worked on numerous blockbuster films.

Some recent clients include Christopher Willis, Son Lux, Joseph Trapanese, Austin Fischer, Rob Cantor, and Jonathan Sadoff. Recent film studio and record label clients include Disney, Apple+, Fromsoft, Paramount, Netflix, and Blix Street Records.

Nitanee Paris is the Director of A&R at ArtistMax, an artist development and education enterprise founded by Grammy-winning producer Ken Caillat (Fleetwood Mac, Colbie Caillat). She is also the owner and Creative Director of the micro-sync label, Great Minds Sync Alike, and the Managing Partner at Marshmellow Skies Immersive Audio Studio.

Paris is an award-winning songwriter whose work has been featured in TV, films, and commercials. Her credits include: PARAMOUNT, CBS Sports, CMT, NETFLIX, MTV, NICKLEODEON, VH1, BET, BRAVO, The CW, HULU, VIACOM/CBS, Comedy Central, the HALLMARK CHANNEL, Apple Fitness, Peloton, NFL Football, and Dignity Health, and her work has been signed with multiple publishers, libraries and licensing agencies. 

Paris is a voting member of the Recording Academy, and she is on the Board of Directors of the Hawaii Songwriting Festival. She is on the judging panel of the Intercontinental Music Awards, the mentor staff of the Durango Songwriters Expo, and the SongArts Committee for the Society of Composers and Lyricists, and she teaches songwriting at Cal Lutheran University. Paris hosts music and charity events, and she produces "Nitanee's Nashville Nights" in Los Angeles, a showcase for hit songwriters and local talent, and the ArtistMax showcase at the iconic Hotel Cafe in Hollywood for new artists from around the world. She also hosts songwriting retreats including a castle retreat in France, where she leads workshops and creativity expansion exercises. 

As a collaborator, Paris works with notable writers including Grammy and Emmy award-winning musicians, composers, and producers, Songwriters Hall of Fame and Musicians Hall of Fame Inductees; as well as contestants on The Voice, Songland, and America's Got Talent, and many other talented artists around the world. Her writing has earned her five Global Peace Song Awards, two Positive Music Awards, and three Grand Prize Awards and a Lennon Award in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, among many other accolades. She has a passion for mentoring young writers and helping artists navigate the music industry by building their craft and expanding their networks.

Hannah Parrott is an American composer, arranger, and vocalist. Born in Los Angeles, Parrott earned her B.M. in classical composition from Biola University’s Conservatory of Music. She went on to study under and work with notable composers James Horner, Thomas Newman, JAC Redford, Michael Boddicker, and Jacob Shea, as well as Grammy-nominated recording engineers Simon Rhodes and Chris James.

A rising force in the industry, Hannah most recently worked at Hans Zimmer’s esteemed Bleeding Fingers Music, partnering with TV networks such as Netflix, National Geographic, History Channel, the BBC, and Discovery Channel. Some of Hannah’s most notable work and involvement include such projects as Netflix’s ReMastered, National Geographic’s The Flood, Discovery Channel’s Alaskan Bush People, History Channel’s Frontiersmen and Mountain Men, BBC’s Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, Disney Pixar’s Finding Dory, Sony’s The Magnificent Seven (2016), DreamWorks’ Bridge of Spies, and Warner Bros.’ The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug. Hannah also works extensively with independent filmmakers debuting work at prominent film festivals such as the Los Angeles Film Festival and the San Diego Comic-Con Independent International Film Festival.

Devin Powers has been a musical force for 40 years, working as a producer and a composer with music on over 900 television series. Currently, his music can be heard on shows such as ABCs The Bachelor Franchise, Naked and Afraid, and The Amazing Race, to name a few.

Powers has recently turned his attention to trailer music, contributing music to campaigns for HBO’s His Dark Materials and Marvel’s Wakanda Forever. And he has all gone back to his roots, once a record Artist on Universal Records with his band The Vents, Devin’s passion for songwriting has him working with acclaimed country writers Gary Nicholson and Jeff Silbar, while also rocking the pop world with rising songwriters and producers Simon Jay and Luke Shrestha. He recently teamed with local Nashville artist and singing phenom Lockwood Barr on a full release, co writing and producing with his team.

Carlos Rafael Rivera is a Grammy and two-time Emmy winning composer and educator with a multifaceted career in Film, TV, and the Performing Arts. His work includes scores for Netflix’s Godless, for which he received a Primetime Emmy, his award-winning score for The Queen’s Gambit, for which he won his second Primetime Emmy and first Grammy Award, Universal Pictures’ A Walk Among The Tombstones, starring Liam Neeson, the hit show Hacks for HBO Max, Universal’s Chupa, as well as the global hit La Reina Del Sur 3 for Netflix/Telemundo.  

This past year, Carlos scored the Apple TV series Lessons In Chemistry, starring Brie Larson, for which he received EMMY nominations in the Outstanding Music Composition For A Limited Or Anthology Series, Movie Or Special and Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music in addition to Society of Composers and Lyricists (SCL) award for score and won for his main title sequence. Other titles include the Netflix limited series Griselda, starring Sofia Vergara; Bleecker Street's Ezra, starring Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, and Robert DeNiro; as well as his continued collaborations with writer/director Scott Frank on AMC Network's Monsieur Spade and the Netflix series Department Q. Carlos is nominated as Television Composer of the Year in 2024, an award he previously won in 2021.

A protégé of Randy Newman, Carlos was named TV Composer of the Year by the World Soundtrack Awards in 2021. He serves as Chair and Associate Professor at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music in Media Scoring and Production. He resides in Miami, FL. 

Marc Rucker is an Associate Director at SoundExchange within the Brand Marketing and Industry Relations group. He is responsible for establishing and building key artist, management, and content owner relationships while helping to raise the profile of SoundExchange and deepen creator engagement in Nashville and beyond. 

A passionate ally to the creative community, Marc has been embedded in the music industry for 14 years, with experience in artist management, business management, publishing, and innovation. 

 Before joining SoundExchange, he managed the careers of multiple successful recording artists. Marc helped co-found Young Entertainment Professionals, and to enrich the relationship between sports and music, he has consulted on live entertainment productions in major sports venues. He also participated in the charity boxing match Rumble on The Row and is an active learner and participant in the web3 and Music NFT ecosystems.

Charlie Sanders is an international music and copyright attorney who serves as outside counsel to the Songwriters Guild of America, and as an advisor to MCNA, the united music creator group for North America (and a CIAM (Paris) global affiliate).  He is likewise board chair of the Congressionally chartered umbrella group for America’s music organizations, the National Music Council of the United States, and advises many other music community non-profit groups, including The Native American Music Association.  For nearly two decades, Sanders previously served as counsel and executive VP to the US National Music Publishers Association, Inc., during which time he principally oversaw the collection and distribution of over $4 billion in music royalties.  He is licensed to practice in New York, California, Washington, DC and before the US Supreme Court, and is a graduate of NYU School of Law, where he served as a Brown-Derenberg Copyright Fellow. 

Among Sanders’ related music community pursuits, he is a former chairman and thirty-year board member of the music industry’s leading social justice outreach group, WhyHunger, the recipient of a 2014 Emmy Award for the copyright education short subject Copy Kid, a three-decade Grammy voting member and former governor of NARAS, and a platinum award-winning producer, musician (tenor sax) and liner notes author.  He is also a former editor of the seminal entertainment industry treatise This Business of Music, and writes and speaks frequently on issues of importance to the US and global music community (including recent panels at SXSW and appearances on various broadcast media outlets).  He has served as an adjunct professor of music law and history at NYU since 1993.

In addition, Sanders is one of the most widely experienced ski journalists in the world, and currently serves as president of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association.  He is among the few persons ever to have recorded off-piste alpine ski descents on all seven continents (including routes in Antarctica, the Arctic and the Himalayas).  Sanders was elected as a member of the board of the United States Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame in 2015 (to which he now serves as vice-chair), and was selected for membership in the globally renown Explorers Club in 2018,.  He is also the author of the award-winning history of the US ski troops in WWII, The Boys of Winter, and co-author of the book Passion for Skiing:  The History of Snow Sports at Dartmouth College.

Beth Sass is a singer-songwriter who was signed as a staff songwriter at Multimedia Music and later Alabama's (the band) Maypop Music Group, where she was mentored by great country lyricists Don Pfrimmer and John Jarrard.  

Beth supported herself as honky-tonk country keyboardist, piano-bar performer, and demo singer. She also toured for several years as a keyboard player, for acts like Herb Reed and the Platters, The Drifters, and The Coasters. Beth then recorded with producer Richard Adler (who also worked with Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, and Alison Krauss). “Naomi” hit Indie Music Community Garageband.com, reaching #1 in Acoustic. Also, her song “Stampede” was chosen for a Shuteye Records Americana compilation, The United States of Americana. She continued to write and record, including the 2012 release, "Knowing Me", which was produced by her with Jerome Kimbrough (Ray Stevens, Ronnie Milsap). More recently, Beth has been collaborating with the certified rockstar Walter Egan (“Magnet and Steel” and “Hot Summer Nights”). Together they have written, recorded, and performed a wide array of poignant songs and released the album WEBS.

Just in time to record her new album project Blue Blind Sky with co-writer and producer Ira Ingber (Lowell George, Bob Dylan, Van Dyke Parks, J.D. Souther, Karla Bonoff, Jennifer Warnes, Andrew Gold, and Bonnie Raitt) Beth was endorsed by Casio Music Gear, promoting Casio Keyboards for performance recording, and education throughout the United States.

Beth is an active advocate for composers and songwriters. She created and leads the Nashville Chapter of Richards Gibbs' Malibu-based Composers Breakfast Club, a weekly roundtable that tackles marketing, legal, and technological topics for music creators. As a member of the steering committee for SCL's Nashville Chapter, Beth chairs the SongArts division and has partnered with SCL SongArts New York and SCL SongArts Los Angeles to develop collaborative programming for the SCL community.

Garry Schyman is a BAFTA-winning composer who  is one of the world’s most celebrated voices in video game music as evidenced by his award-winning scores to the BioShock game series, as well as dozens of hit games, films, and television productions. Schyman has most notably given the universe of BioShock (including BioShock 2 and BioShock Infinite) its musical identity, scoring the hugely successful game series with a blend of haunting beauty and terrifying unease. He paid playful homage to ’50s sci-fi with his score for the game Destroy All Humans! (followed by two sequels), accelerated the heartbeat in action games like Resistance: Retribution and Dante’s Inferno, and gave a nod to the hypnotic style of Bernard Herrmann in the mystery game Voyeur. He has been in the fantasy world of Tolkien for the adventure game Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Schyman’s film and television credits span every genre, including classic series like The A-Team and Magnum, P.I., stormy action (Tornado!), thrillers (Horseplayer, starring Brad Dourif), and family horror (Spooky House, starring Ben Kingsley) and more recently Itsy Bitsy. 

Ben Short is the Sr. Director, Creative Licensing for Warner Chappell Production Music. Starting at Warner Chappell Production Music in 2013, Ben has progressed from Marketing Coordinator to his current position. Ben has used his expertise to close premiere music deals with ESPN, Buzzfeed, HBO, Sphere, and Crossfit, among others. Ben has also used his production music experience to help secure music for several of the largest advertising agencies in North America, by placing music in campaigns for Lincoln, Pepsi, Meta, Dunkin Donuts, McDonald's, Visa, IBM, and many more. In addition, Ben has also licensed music to several films and shows such as Upload, Dark Waters, Queen of the South, Younger, The Dirt, and many more. 

Ben Short resides in Nashville, TN, and enjoys spending time with his wife and son. 

Rob Simonsen is a composer who’s first break into film composing was the independent feature Westender in 2003 which caught the attention of composer Mychael Danna. In 2004 he teamed up with Danna and provided additional music and arrangements on Surf's Up, Fracture, Moneyball, and the Oscar®-winning Life of Pi. Since then, Rob Simonsen has continued relationships with leading directors. His relationship with Shawn Levy prior to Deadpool & Wolverine includes The Way Way Back, Stranger Things (Season 4),” and The Adam Project starring Ryan Reynolds. Other director collaborations include Justin Baldoni (It Ends with Us), Darren Aronofsky (The Whale), Jason Reitman (Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Tully), Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer), and Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman (Nerve).

Mikhaila Alyssa Smith is a South African composer and pianist based in New York City, known for her diverse contributions to film, the concert hall and interdisciplinary art. Her most recent work includes includes her score to feature film Carissa, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this year. She was also the featured composer at the renowned Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in 2023, where her commissioned work, Lighting Our Stories, had its world premiere. 

Smith’s interdisciplinary collaborations are notable, including her work with South African artist Mia Thom on installations such as Soil Lullaby, Attune, and Idée Fixe. Her music has been exhibited in Galerie im Körnerpark in Berlin, JAG in Johannesburg, Everard Read in Cape Town, and at various festivals, demonstrating her ability to merge music with visual art. Currently signed to Platoon, Smith is set to release her debut solo piano album in 2024. 

She is an orchestrator for Joy Music House to which she is credited on scores such as Netflix’s Look Both Ways (Ian Hultquist and Drum & Lace), Disney’s Rosaline (Ian Hultquist and Drum & Lace) and HBO Max’s Edge of the Earth (Tyler Strickland), amongst others. Smith is an alumnus of the SCL New York Mentor Program and currently works for the organization as the social media manager of the New York Chapter. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in concert composition from the University of Cape Town and a Master’s degree in film scoring from New York University where her unique voice emerged, blending traditional techniques with modern sensibilities to create a distinctive sound. 

Smith’s artistic world involves storytelling, collaborating with other artists and immersing herself in worlds beyond this one through the powerful and expressive medium of music.

Michael Todd has held a leadership role in the film and television music industry for 25+ years, who is a visionary for composer/songwriter growth and a passionate advocate who has championed the creative community at all career levels fostering professional relationships for many highly regarded composers’ careers. A skilled professional musician himself, he has a proven innate ability to spot emerging talent and has secured a significant number of ASCAP’s most impactful signings.

Todd has produced flagship programs including the revered ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop (LA) for 20 years, Panels & Sessions for the I Create Music Expo rebranded as the ASCAP Experience, educational master sessions for a number of prestigious University Level Music Programs and International Film Music Festivals as well as the music production & live performances for the ASCAP Screen Music Awards.

Todd’s influence extends globally, advising various European film music festivals, notably the World Soundtrack Awards & Krakow’s FMF and also serves locally on the Songwriters Hall of Fame West Coast Events Committee, and is also a board member for the LA Jazz Society and AIMP LA Chapter. Todd has contributed to the Professional Development committee as well as the Grammy Next mentor program for the Recording Academy LA Chapter. Todd holds a BA in Studio Music & Jazz Performance (Saxophone)/ Dean’s list (1990) from the University of Miami.

Jay Weigel is a distinguished composer, producer, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, and contractor for film, television, recordings, and concerts. Based in Nashville and New Orleans, he has worked in the film and television industry for over 35 years. His recent scores and soundtrack recordings can be heard in the Warner Brothers films including, The Campaign, Green Lantern, Grudge Match, Get Hard, and Midnight Special; over 19 of Tyler Perry’s projects including Nobody’s Fool, Acrimony, For Colored Girls, Meet the Browns, Madea Witness Protection, and his TV series The Oval season two of Too Close To Home. Universal’s Girl Trip; HBO’s Little Britain; I Love You Phillip Morris, Bullet to the Head; Netflix’s The Last Laugh, The Highwaymen; AMC’s Interview with a Vampire and numerous documentaries and independent films, including Angela Shelton’s The Hammer and The Eagle and the Albatross; Lisa Arnold’s, Caged No More, Camp Cool Kids, One Nation, Jowan Carbin’s Cut Off.

He has worked as an orchestrator, conductor, contractor and/or score preparer for composers such as George S. Clinton, Christopher Young, David Wingo, Jon Swihart, Christopher Lennertz and Terence Blanchard. As an arranger and orchestrator, he has worked with artists such as Andra Day, REM, Tank and the Bangas, Richard Dreyfus, Chevy Chase, Andy McDowell, Chris Thomas King, Jon Cleary and Judith Owen. 

Currently he is working with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra on orchestral arrangements for upcoming performances Big Freedia, The Lost Bayou Ramblers.

His concert work has been commissioned by numerous orchestras and organizations, including the National Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Louis Cathedral, University of Southern Mississippi Symphony, New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and the Acadiana Symphony. Most recently, he premiered his orchestral work Water’s Gravity which was a follow up commission from his A New Orleans Concerto, for Orchestra.

Chris Wirsig is an award-winning composer, songwriter and producer, whose music can be heard in the upcoming alcoholism drama feature Five Things To Love, the werewolf drama feature Aware Of The Wolf, the award-winning documentary series Halloween Obsessed, the vampire feature The Things We Cannot Change, several short movies, and in numerous TV shows like Ancient Aliens, The Curse Of Oak Island, The Real Murders Of… and many others on ABC, E!, MTV, History, Oxygene, Fox Sports and more. Other projects include the pilot for an LGBTQ+ animated comedy series, Be More Popcorn, the cyberpunk boxing drama Steel Will, the 1830’s period horror drama The Knocker, and charity projects with cover versions of Depeche Mode's “People Are People” with 36 musicians and singers, and a Heavy Metal version of the Ukrainian National Anthem benefitting the Red Cross.

On the songwriting/producing side, Chris started the acclaimed Electro Pop/Dark Wave band no:carrier in 1995 and the Electronica/Chill-Out project Virtual Conformity in 2001, as well as several side projects. He’s also co-writing and producing songs with other artists and songwriters like Psyche, Lori Barth, Briana Cash, Daniel E. Wakefield, Liza Marie Sparks, Queen Chameleon, The Dust Ryde, echoekill, and many others.

Chris is a Board Member and the SongArts chair of the Society Of Composers and Lyricists, as well as a member of the Television Academy, the Recording Academy, and the Production Music Association.

Leonard Wolf is a thirty-plus-year Nashville veteran in composing, sound design, audio engineering and mixing for all media. He has won 4 Emmys, many advertising awards, and song honors from film festivals and international song competitions in a variety of genres. In advertising, Wolf’s scores have been heard in almost every sort of award-winning spot for national and regional advertising. He’s also a video editor of music videos and one indie feature and has sound design and mixed 3 features and some shorts.

As a songwriter, he has had songs cut by Vince Gill, Della Reese, Gospel great Shirley Ceasar, Jazz singer Jaimee Paul, and many others both here and in Europe. As a professional musician, media composer and engineer, Leonard has worked with a wide variety of artists including Garth, Reba, Dr. Hook, Don Everly, Donna Summers, Lee Greenwood, Billy Crystal, The Diamonds, Bill Medley, Pam Tillis and Tiny Tim. He also creates demos for songwriters and artists in many genres. He is equally at home composing orchestral or pop music, as a solo pianist, or as a one-man rock band playing guitar, bass, and drums.

Allison Wright Clark is a music executive, music supervisor, and producer, as well as a music licensing, publishing, and A&R expert. She worked with Hans Zimmer and his team for over seven years and with the Jonas Group for three years. Her projects span many media forms, including blockbuster films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, television shows such as The Good Wife, hit video games including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and advertising for major brands such as Nike and Coca-Cola. Clark is an educator as well, teaching the Music Supervision for Film and TV course at UCLA Extension in Los Angeles.

Russell Ziecker's journey in the music industry has been a dynamic and multi-faceted one. Commencing his career as a touring and session bass player in the vibrant musical landscape of Los Angeles, Ziecker's early experiences fostered a deep-rooted passion for music. Transitioning seamlessly into music publishing, he took on pivotal roles such as Creative Director at Chrysalis Music Group, spearheading the establishment of the New York office, and subsequently as VP Creative and Head of Acquisitions at Virgin Music America in Los Angeles. The foundation laid, he ventured to Portland, Oregon, founding the independent record and studio production company, URGE.

Returning to the heart of the industry in Los Angeles during the mid-1990s, Ziecker showcased his adeptness by managing esteemed major label artists and collaborating with film and television composers. His talents expanded to encompass music supervision for films as well. This period marked the genesis of his affiliation with Lionsgate, coinciding with the company's foray into television and music publishing. Ziecker assumed the mantle of Head of Television Music in 2005 and played a pivotal role in curating the sonic identities of a multitude of iconic Lionsgate TV productions, including acclaimed series such as Mad Men, Weeds, Nurse Jackie, and Orange is the New Black, among others. 

Ziecker's trajectory continued to ascend as he was entrusted with greater responsibilities. His appointment as the CEO of SYN America, a Tokyo-based commercial music house backed by Duran Duran's Simon LeBon, attested to his international acclaim. The canvas of his accomplishments further broadened as he took over the reins of the Starz Music department in 2017, assuming a central role in shaping the auditory landscapes of captivating shows like P-Valley, Power, Ghost, Raising Kanan, and more. Russell Ziecker's indelible footprint in the realms of music publishing, supervision, and television music direction reflects a lifetime dedicated to the harmonious convergence of creativity and entertainment.