IYME Award finalists
Eight applicants are shortlisted for International Young Music Entrepreneur (IYME) award 2011 Latvia final
In total for the International Young Music Entrepreneur award we received 18 applications. During the last two days IYME award Jury was evaluating each and every application against certain set of IYME Award criteria – entrepreneurial abilities, leadership potential to make positive changes within the sector, market awareness and understanding, creative abilities, originality of ideas, international outlook, evidences of innovative, unique, original and competitive entrepreneurship as well as other criteria.
The Jury made decision to select 8 applicants for the final whose applications were substantially stronger and corresponded the most to IYME Award criteria.
The finalists are (in alphabetical order by name):
1. Dace Volfa, www.iloveyou.lv
2. Inese Saulāja, www.micrecmusic.lv
3. Kristaps Puķītis, http://youtube.com/dirtydeallv
4. Linda Lezdiņa, www.lindaleen.com
5. Līva Pētersone, www.instrumenti.in
6. Marts Sildniks, www.fonofest.com
7. Miks Magone, http://skyr.wordpress.com/
8. Ričards Čerenkovs, www.ensemblyline.com
To introduce you with the Latvian finalists please read short applicant profiles below.
Have your say about whom you consider the most creative & entrepreneurial, passionate & experienced leader in music industry!
Dace Volfa, a manager in “I Love You Records” (www.iloveyou.lv )
Why are you applying? “I believe it can be usual for both sides – Latvia to get better known internationally and music business to have closer look at our small country. And, of course, I am fascinated about fantastic line-up at Great Escape.”
Dace started her career as a DJ at Radio SWH (1993-1999). Since 1999 she contributed to the newspaper “Diena”, magazines “Una”, “Klubs”, “Pastaiga” as a free-lance journalist and to the internet portals “TVNET” and “Apollo” as an entertainment editor. Since 2002 Dace works as an editor of Popular Music section at magazine “Muzikas Saule”, which is the only professional music magazine in Latvia, covering both classical and popular music.
A few years ago she started her career in “I Love You Records”. She tells that it is a small record label company and manager’s job includes almost everything starting from A&R, producing, distributing and public relations and ending with organizing weekly live music events at the Old Town bar “I Love You” and promoting concerts of their artists in bigger venues in Riga.
Inese Saulāja, a copyright manager of MicRec Publishing (www.micrecmusic.lv )
Why are you applying? “The ideas generated throughout the UK tour I would include in developing the publishing sector that should get more recognized and understood in Latvia and The Baltic States.”
As a copyright manager, Inese was involved in establishing traditions and routines of music publishing in Latvia from the scratch since there were no Music Publishing companies present due to the Soviet Union regime.
To gain more experience about the music industry Inese has worked also as a backstage and stage manager for several live events in Latvia as concerts and festivals like Positivus and experimental festival Skanu mezs.
For last 2 years Inese also manages a hip-hop artist Gustavo. She was in the team behind Gustavo Arena Riga show last year, have worked on sponsorship deals for the album release and concert among other activities related to the artist.
Kristaps Puķītis, director and programme manager of ‘Dirty Deal Caf?’ (http://youtube.com/dirtydeallv)
Why are you applying? “I am really enthusiastic for development of Latvian electronic music and want to increase its local and international popularity. I want Latvia to have more good music. I want to give young Latvian musicians the opportunity to gain popularity without doing only pop music – music for the masses, but also with musical experiments.”
Kristaps works with music for 12 years. He started as an assistant project manager in festival and party promoter groups: Bio.Codes Production and Svaigs 99%. Afterwards he became a manager himself and started to do several monthly series of D’n’B events: Bass Battles at club Depo (Riga), Neroks at club Fontaine Palace. In 2003 Kristaps together with DJ’s from Bio.codes productions launched a radio show Bio.Ritmi in Radio NABA, which is still on the air. In 2006 ‘Dirty Deal Caf?’ was opened. Kristaps organized a lot of events, parties and concerts there, hosted foreign and local artists and provided space for promoters.
Now Kristaps is working on a new project ‘DirtyDealAudio‘, which is Latvian electronic music support group. Their goal is to increase local and global popularity of the newcomers in Latvian indie electronic music scene..
Linda Lezdiņa, an owner of Chameleon Sounds Ltd (www.lindaleen.com )
Why are you applying? “I see this tour as a possibility to expand my imaginary borders and to step out of my comfort zone. To challenge my abilities, skills and confidence in the society where I would have to prove my value again.”
Linda has an experience in music industry for 10 years. As a songwriter, performer, producer and publisher she has been a witness of the development of music industry in Latvia. She has released solo albums and DVD Live @ Opera 2009. Since she has her own publishing company Chameleon Sounds, she has released her first Best Duet’s Album “DIVI”, which afterwards was presented by an audio exhibition. Every song had its visual story.
Recently Linda together with her team organized her “Best of” show in Arena Riga. The concert was attended by 4500 people and shown on Latvian Independent Television.
Overall, Linda is eager to continue giving and organizing concerts by making most of it- in terms of business and creativity.
Liva Petersone, a manager of Instrumenti (www.instrumenti.in)
Why are you applying? “I feel excited as a little kid eager to explore new playgrounds and rides to take. It’ll take a lot of work and there’s a lot of connections to build for Instrumenti and, in my eyes, the Great Escape is one of the greatest places for that, hence I am applying for the award.”
Liva has been managing Instrumenti for more than a year. Although it was her first band, she managed them noticeably well. Instrumenti is considered to be one of the most successful music acts in the Baltic states, last year they played well over 30 shows in different festivals and events outside Latvia, Instrumenti received the Song of the Year award and last December staged 2 epic live shows at Sapņu Fabrika in Riga with the total attendance of 5000.
Liva’s experience was gathered by taking different kinds of responsibilities starting from being an accountant, booking agent, roadie, press manager, marketing planner, concert organizer, make-up artist and others. Her first music industry employer was MTV Networks Baltic. Liva was a script editor for all local shows and charts and later became a press & campaign manager.
Marts Sildniks, director of “Fono” Ltd. (www.fonofest.com, www.fonoklubs.lv )
Why are you applying? “My main gain would be the international experience and
know-how in concert promotion, as well as strengthening of the relationship I already have with my colleagues at the UK market.”
Marts has the experience in music industry as a promoter, a stage manager and a musician for more than 10 years. In 2000 he started to book shows and now he has been a part of more than 300 different club and festival shows in Cesis, Riga, Liepaja. Marts also plays guitar in a band called Enhet, which just celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Currently Marts is a program director of Fonofest and Fonoclub. His daily responsibilities are taking care of program for Fonofest and Fonoclub (booking bands and DJs) and taking part in all marketing activities involved.
This will be the 7th year for Fonofest. And Miks has been in the management team since the beginning. During this time they have built the brand as one of the biggest festival names in Latvia. The number of visitors of Fonofest increases every year (from ~500 on the first year to ~4500 last year).
Miks Magone, the head of the SKYR’s board (skyr.wordpress.com )
Why are you applying? “Professionally this would mean a learning experience. I assume there are things balancing on the edge between ‘music as commodity’ and ‘music as art’. And, given the previous experience, this kind of approach is mostly embodied within non-governmental institutions.”
Miks has put up his first show back in 2001 at the Community Hall in my little hometown Durbe, and has been doing it ever since. Now he is the head of the SKYR Assn’s board, which is a non-governmental organization engaged in concert organization and releasing records by local musicians. Miks’ role within SKYR involves pretty much everything related to releasing records and putting up shows. He personally follows what’s going on in local music scene and by constantly updating his record shelf Miks picks the bands he finds worth releasing. He also carries out the public communication (press releases, paid advertising, integrated promotional communication etc.), and necessary technical arrangements.
All in all, Miks considers himself to be a dedicated fan in the first place rather than a profit oriented entrepreneur.
Ricards Cerenkovs, a co-owner and producer of Ensembly Line (www.ensemblyline.com )
Why are you applying? “Receiving this award will be a strong momentum for our market contacts to grow wider. Therefore, we hope to find new contacts in the United Kingdom, not just among the organisers, but also among young music entrepreneurs from other countries as a part of the peer networking with the international and UK participants, so that they can become our partners in the future and help us extend our reach.”
Ensembly Line is a music and video production company based in Riga, Latvia. Ricards is a co-owner and producer responsible for music services. This includes song-writing, composing, music arranging, sound design, live instruments recording, drums programming, mixing and mastering.
His previous experience includes music production, participation in service management and sales promotion activities in companies as Modern Beats and Arturia.
