Simon Pursehouse
Simon Pursehouse has been an integral part of Sentric Music Group since the company’s infancy overseeing the signing of Sentric’s first artist in 2006 to its now established community of over 400,000 songwriters.Simon works within the Business Development and Creative Departments at Sentric and is the point person for their roster of signed songwriters. Previously at Sentric, Simon headed up the sync division, which under his supervision was nominated as Best Indie Publisher at the Music Week Sync awards for six years running…
Dani Larkin
Beguiling, intense, driven folk songs expertly accompanied by guitar and banjo, Dani Larkin’s songs voyage through stories drawn from mythology and folklore, ruminations on love and relationships, and experiences of wildness, loss, love and mystery, steered with a gentle strength and engagingly calm conviction. Nominated for ‘Best Single’ (2022), ‘Best Album’ at Northern Ireland Music Prize (2021), and Best Emerging Artist at RTE Folk Awards (2021), Dani Larkin has been an artist picking up speed with each release, and one that has been making her mark on the industry, in her own way. 2022 saw Larkin tour with Declan O’Rourke, Ye Vagabonds and Wallis Bird as well as performing at Folk Alliance, SXSW, Reeperbahn, English Folk Expo, WOMEX, and a profound performance at the RTE Folk Awards. In addition to appearances with Glen Hansard and Snow Patrol, it is clear that Larkin has firmly established herself as a must-see artist on the national and international stage. Already, 2023 has seen Larkin perform her first run of sold out shows in New York at the Irish Arts Centre and her first international tour in Australia at a series of festivals and headline shows including the world-renowned Portfairy Folk Festival.
Matthew Whiteside
Matthew Whiteside, the List Hot 100 2019, is a composer, collaborator, sound designer and concert producer based in Glasgow, named ‘One to Watch’ in the Herald’s Culture Awards 2017 and winner of the Light Moves Innovative Use of Sound Award for his work Entangled with Marisa Zanotti. His music has been described as “Effective and Unsettling” by BBC Music Magazine and “post-minimalist bold sparseness” by the Herald. In 2020 he won the SMIA Award for Creative Programming…
Gunnar Geßner
Gunnar Geßner, project development and management at the MusikZentrum Hannover, is on the boards of Klubnetz and LiveKomm, both networks for venues and festivals on a state and a federal level. As a night time advocate he recently worked on a strategy for night time culture in his hometown which will be implemented in 2023. At LiveKomm, with its 650 venues and 200 festivals, he co-chairs the working group for a greener future in live music. He’s on the advisory board of UNESCO City of Music Hannover and in the jury for national music infrastructure projects by Initiative Musik.
Stephen O’Regan
Stephen O'Regan was the co-founder of BalconyTV - which started in 2006 when he started to film bands on his apartment balcony on Dame Street in Dublin. The BalconyTV concept spread to 100 cities around the world where 20,000 shows were filmed. BalconyTV was ultimately acquired by The Orchard/ Sony. Stephen also directed the award winning 35mm short film 'They're Made Out Of Meat.' Stephen currently lives in Lisbon where he makes a video series titled 'People of Lisbon.
Steph Carter
Steph Carter is a professional musician, educator, and producer. Best known for his work on stage and in the studio with the critically acclaimed punk band Gallows, The Ghost Riders in the Sky and Lyoness. Steph has an extensive background in both mainstream and private education, working as a Peri-teacher, Higher Education Programme Manager, Curriculum Developer, Project Manager for the Creative Industries, as well as a Consultant in the private sector…
Sophie Robinson
Sophie is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. She has an exceptionally strong reputation for bringing her stories to life through powerful and emotive characters that are at the core of her films.Most recently she has been nominated for her BAFTA and RTSnominated film ""My Dead Body"" (CH4) about a single mother from Deal whose death bed decision will go on to save thousands of people after her. Just before that ‘Living Donor’ a film about the worlds first female transplant surgeon Nancy Ascher, for the Netflix four-parter ‘Surgeon’s Cut’ which was awarded an Emmy, a BAFTA and an RTS award. Prior to that her feature documentary, also a Netflix Original My Beautiful Broken Brain’ featured the story of Lotje Sodderland, a woman who's life was turned upside down by a brain haemorrhage and was executive produced by David Lynch and nominated for an Emmy as well as receiving a special mention from the jury for best female director. Sophie is also behind award winning films such as BBC2’s ‘Me, My Mouth and I’ about disability activist Jess Thom, the highly acclaimed, ‘Your Life In Their Hands’, ‘Edge of Life’, 'Nicola Roberts and The Truth about Tanning’' and ‘Do You See What I See?’ and many more.
Solomon Adesiyan
My name is Solomon and I'm an entrepreneur within the music/entertainment sector. I’m based in Ireland. Trust It Entertainment is my music company and we have recently done an international deal as a label with Warner Music Group International and Atlantic Records Uk the first of its kind in Irish history ! Coum Technologies Ltd is my music tech startup that I’m streamlining the traditional setup of the music industry via tech solutions/products. We’re a one stop shop ! (Enhancing the music industry forever !). I’m a hustler and a lover of music !
Rocky O’Reilly
Rocky is a producer, mixer and songwriter from Belfast. He is an enthusiastic supporter of new music. This sees him collaborating in a wide range of genres, from doom metal all the way through to opera. Recent projects include Nathan Connolly, The Wood Burning Savages and The Florentinas. He owns Start Together Studio, a multi-studio facility that's provided thousands of sessions for local & international artists, labels and broadcasters…
Phil Nelson
Phil has been an Artist Manager since 1988 managing first The Levellers who achieved 1 Platinum, 5 Gold records with Phil. During Phil’s tenure the band headlined the Glastonbury Festival before starting their own 15,000 capacity Festival Beautiful Days Festival. He went on to manage The Longpigs (1 Gold record and Brit Award Nomination), and current clients include 2019 Grammy-nominated Matt Hales / Aqualung / Soren Lorensen (1 Gold record) and Duke Special (1 Platinum record), Sweet Billy Pilgrim (1 Mercury music prize Nomination…
Niall Byrne
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-read Irish music site Nialler9, operating out of Dublin city since 2005, where he writes about music and hosts the Nialler9 Podcast.
In addition, Niall is a DJ and resident of the monthly Lumo Club and an artist manager for alternative rock artist Skinner.
Niall produces, curates and hosts gigs, parties & events around Ireland. Niall has curated once-off music events at SXSW in Austin, Texas & Camden Crawl in London as well as nationally for Musictown, Dublin Theatre Festival, Cork’s Sounds From A Safe Harbour and Happenings among others.
Niall has a keen interest in utilising creative and under-used spaces in the city, where possible having previously produced events at Monster Truck Gallery, Block T, Dublin Food Co-op, Granby Park, and the Garda Boat Club. Most recently, Niall co-produced Night Moves a DJ-lead event at the Fruit & Veg Market off Capel Street as part of Culture Night Dublin.
Nainita Desai
Emmy and RTS award winning composer, Nainita Desai, was World Soundtrack Awards 2021 winner for Discovery of the Year. A double BIFA and Cinema Eye Honors nominee; BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. Nainita was described by Empire magazine as one of the top 5 composers to watch for 2022 and won the Women In Film & TV Award for Creative Technology 2022. She has been nominated in 2023 for the MPSE Golden Reel Award for Best Music Editing on a video game, an ASCAP Composer Choice award and two G.A.N.G awards for her score for acclaimed Bafta winning video game Immortality.
Amongst various BAFTA, Oscar and Emmy acclaimed productions, Nainita’s recent projects include the Netflix hit documentary 14 Peaks: Nothing Is Impossible, exec produced by Oscar winner Jimmy Chinn, for which her score earned Emmy, HMMA and ASCAP Composer Choice nominations. Desai’s other credits include Oscar 2020 nominated and BAFTA & Cannes winning feature doc For Sama, and Sundance winning The Reason I Jump, an immersive cinematic exploration of neurodiversity. Recent projects include BBC1 action thriller series Crossfire, Bafta nominated American Murder, ITV crime drama series The Tower (Mammoth Screen, Gemma Whelan), land mark natural history series Predators for Sky/Netflix and Interactive film / video game Telling Lies, (Annapurna Interactive).
Current projects include SKY comedy drama series Funny Woman (Gemma Arterton), a major fantasy, adventure series for Disney+, and other landmark series for Apple TV+, James Cameron, National Geographic and video games for EA Originals and Activision. Following a degree in Maths and studying sound for film at the NFTS in the UK, Nainita began her career as a sound designer on feature films for directors including Werner Herzog and Bertolucci, as well as assistant music engineering for Peter Gabriel. Nainita moves seamlessly between working with orchestras, to scores utilizing her collection of custom-made instruments, incorporating electronics, found sound, and experimental sound design which has informed her experimental, deeply immersive approach. She is also an elected senate member of the Ivor’s Academy, and sits on the BAFTA Film Committee and AMPAS Intl Committee.
Megan Devereux
Megan is the Education Co-ordinator at Marshall Amplification, working closely with Steph Carter (Head of Education), to support grassroots talent, local schools, colleges and universities by providing real industry experience and opportunities. After graduating with a BA(Hons) in Professional Musicianship - specialising in Vocals from BIMM Brighton, Megan has worked in many areas of the music industry. With experience in teaching music performance and vocal techniques across Level 3 Diploma to BA (Hons) degree level to actively working as a session musician and performer she has developed the skills to sustain a career in the music industry.
Mark Graham
Mark Graham is a lecturer in the Department of Arts at SETU (South-East Technical University). He spent 10 years performing with the band King Kong Company. Mark has previously worked for Today FM and RTE Radio. His book, A Year of Festivals in Ireland, documented his quest to attend three Irish festivals per week for an entire year. He ended up attending three festivals per week for three years while writing his Festival Fit column for The Irish Times. A Year of Festivals in Ireland won Travel Book of the Year at the Irish Travel Writers Awards. The associated Year of Festivals blog won Best Popular Culture Blog at the Irish Blog Awards. In 2019 Mark launched The Irish Music Industry Podcast. He is currently converting two double decker buses into mini homes and working towards a PhD in the area of Music Industry Practice/Ethics.
Louise Gallagher
Louise started her career at the BBC in Belfast working in production across Radio, TV and Online services. She flew the BBC nest and started working on independent shorts and features, producing her first feature film, A Bump Along The Way, starring Bronagh Gallagher and Lola Petticrew. She joined Hattrick at the start of 2020 to run their most westerly outpost in Belfast, seeking out new and exciting projects from across Ireland. Louise is the recent recipient of an IFTA for best short film Rough written and directed by Declan Lawn and Adam Patterson, and is co-creator and Executive Producer on BBC drama series Blue Lights.
Lea Heart
Lea who started out in her bedroom two years ago, dreaming of performing on big stages and people hearing her music, now has amassed over 11 million global streams and has had an amazing run in the last year, gracing some of the country’s biggest stages, from a packed out tent at Electric Picnic 2022, opening for both Sigrid and Lewis Capaldi at their headline 3Arena Shows, and her own sold out headline show at 3Olympia in April 2023…
Julie Hough
Julie Hough is a musician and label co-founder based in Dublin. She is most well known as the singer and bassist in the grunge-indie band, HAVVK. Born in Galway, Julie began her music career as a folk-indie solo artist after moving to London in 2014. Here she met producer and bandmate, Matthew Harris and they formed the band HAVVK. HAVVK have toured across Ireland, the UK and Europe, playing with the likes of And So I Watch You From Afar, Nova Twins and Drums, and capturing the attention of BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamaq, Lauren Lavern, as well as appearing in the Guardian, Irish Times and Line of Best Fit. HAVVK have released two studio albums produced by Belfast’s Rocky O’Reilly. Since their inception, the band have been based in Berlin and now Dublin, where they have developed their label and collective VETA Music, working with artists such as Maria Kelly, Sive and St. Bishop. Julie specializes in release strategy, social media marketing and creative development. She also co-runs the artist organisation, SelfMade, which hosts speaking and networking events for musicians in Dublin and across Ireland, focussing on topics such as DIY release strategy, live development, and mental health in music.
Jonathan Tait
Jonathan is currently the Rights Manager for STV, the largest broadcaster in Scotland where he looks after acquisitions and rights for the STV Player. Before this, he spent nearly 20 years in the music industry working in A&R, artist management, tour management, as a rehearsal and studio owner and then latterly in music education before re-training as a IP and entertainment lawyer in 2016. Jonathan is also a consultant who advises artists new and established and music industry professionals right across the whole industry, is a Director for the Scottish Music Industry Association and the Academy of Music & Sound.
Jo Wright
Jo Wright works as a Music and traditional arts development officer at the Arts of Northern Ireland (ACNI). Jo has been working at ACNI for the past 6 years and she has been working in the music sector across Ireland for the past 24 years. She started out as a session brass player and a recording and live sound engineer. Jo graduated from Queen’s University in 2004 with a BSc in Music Technology before moving into artist management, development and consultancy…
Jenny Goodwin
Jenny is Director of Policy, Public Affairs and Campaigns at The Ivors Academy of Music Creators, the UK’s independent professional association for songwriters and composers working across all genres. Since joining the Academy in early 2020, she has overseen the launch and delivery of the joint Academy and Musicians’ Union #Fix Streaming and #ComposersAgainstBuyouts campaigns and, more recently, the Academy’s Composers Under Pressure campaign (prompted by changes to the cultural and funding landscape for classical, jazz and sound art composers). She is also responsible for overseeing the Academy’s policy, public affairs and research activities.
Prior to joining the Academy, she spent five years at PRS for Music working in strategy, planning and governance, two years launching Saffron Hall (an award-winning 740-seat venue) and 10 years as Assistant Chief Executive of the Music Publishers Association.