DELEGATES
As every year, Czech Music Crossroads will be attended by more than 3 dozen music business experts from all over the world. Performing musicians will thus have the opportunity to approach experienced managers, bookers, festival organizers and publicists. Some of them will also speak as part of the conference program .
Eszter
BARNA
HUNGARY | International project manager at Hangvető
Eszter graduated as a sociologist, with a special interest in urban sociology, subcultures, and social psychology. At the same time, music has always been there in her life; in the form of a Woodstock movie for her birthday, a Nick Cave concert when she was 13, and David Bowie or Morcheeba cassettes during family road trips. So, it’s not a surprise she studied music management after university.
After a detour towards Erasmus projects in the NGO environment, she joined Hangvető’s team as an international project manager, and she got involved in large-scale projects such as MOST — The Bridge for Balkan Music, and UPBEAT — The European Showcase Platform for World Music. She’s also a part of the team behind BALKAN:MOST Festival, the closing event of MOST, a showcase and conference celebrating the diverse culture of the Balkan region.
Matthew
BARTLETT
GREAT BRITAIN | CEO of booking agency Midnight Mango
Matt has had a fascinating journey in the music industry. With a background as a national promoter in the noughties, Matt's career took an unexpected turn when several artists he regularly promoted approached him to become their agent. Embracing the challenge, Matt transformed his company into a booking agency.
Over the next nine years, Midnight Mango steadily grew as a booking agency. In 2019, the agency's dedication and success were acknowledged when they won the Live Agency of the Year award at the UK Festival Awards. Post pandemic in 2023, they won it again! Like many others, during the pandemic Midnight Mango suffered significant setbacks. Undeterred, Matt focused on devising a new business model that would fuel the agency's growth once live events returned to normal.
In Matt's words, "These days our agents are our new rockstars, they can work from anywhere and book everywhere. It’s our job to make sure they have everything they need so they can spend more time doing what they do best - booking shows. We’re excited to be attending Czech Music Crossroads and look forward to meeting new artists and agents as potential partners in Ostrava in June.”
Currently, Midnight Mango supports 21 agents, alongside a team of five administrative staff. The company represents nearly 250 artists. In the last financial year 2023-24, their efforts resulted in artist fees exceeding £4 million, generated from a remarkable 2,782 performances.
Sam
BRYANT
GREAT BRITAIN | Booking agent at Midnight Mango
Sam is a booking agent with over 10 years’ experience working closely alongside the artists he represents to develop their live careers.
Having worked in several roles at festivals and venues running/ managing shows and events, he began to gravitate towards the artist side of the coin, and since then has concentrated on booking shows for primarily global acts into the UK & Europe. Whilst not exclusively working with world music, most of the acts on Sam’s roster would be defined as such, and therefore most of the promoters he works with regularly have an interest in the genre. Sam joined Midnight Mango over two years ago, and has enjoyed being a part of the cheerful and supportive team there ever since.
Brahim
EL MAZNED
MOROCCO | Art director, Timitar Festival
Brahim has been the artistic director of the Timitar Festival of World Music since 2004. The festival is mainly dedicated to Amazigh culture and has become a major event in world music, attracting about half a million spectators annually.
In 2014, he also launched Visa For Music (VFM), the first festival and professional market dedicated to African and Middle Eastern music, which now takes place every November in Rabat, Morocco.
Additionally, Brahim El Mazned was a member of the EU/UNESCO Bank of Expertise from 2019 to 2022. He is an expert on cultural policy and creative industries at UNESCO, and serves as a jury member and artistic adviser for various cultural events in Morocco and around the world.
Mathieu
GERVAIS
FRANCE | Music programmer
Mathieu has been working for the Trans Musicales Festival and Ubu Club in Rennes for 12 years, as a music programmer. He was also developing international relations, based on artistic exchanges. He stopped working with the festival in December but he's still developing new events, based on immersion and what's new in the music scene. His skills and passion are in booking new kind of bands, from all music styles, preferably new styles, hybrid ones.
Mathieu has been working in the music industry for 18 years in total. Before Trans Musicales, he managed a few French bands, organized many electronic events and worked on Artist development. He was also working as a production manager for many French bands.
Gianluca
GIUSTI
ITALY | Music Export Manager at Ater Foundation - Emilia-Romagna Music Commission
Dealing with music in various aspects: musician, producer, agent.
Trying to apply a humanist approach, putting the values of sharing, culture, and progress at the center of his work in the music business.
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Peiti
HUANG
TAIWAN | Programme Director, 2024 World Music Festival @ Taiwan, Head of International Brand Innovation Operations Group in Wind Music, Taiwan
Professional A&R, music project coordinator, exhibition executor in Wind Music, MA fromNational Taipei Art University Musicology, Taiwan. Peiti has more than 20 years experienceof studying music, and is a highly trained musical professional. Her experience includeplanning and executing various projects, over 100 albums and cultural creative products, Experiencing Traditional Music in Taiwan 2012, Hearing Taiwan cultural 2014 and Legend of Passage 2015 creative project, 2016—2024 World Music Festival @Taiwan.
Knowing the pulse of the international market and the taste of music in the market, Peiti hasrecently successfully negotiated a number of large-scale international music festival performances, and actively promoted Taiwan's outstanding groups to perform on theinternational stage, such as Rainforest World Music Festival, WOMADelaide, Zealand. Shehas also been praised by international curators as a rare new generation of internationalmarketing promoters.
In recent years, Peiti has been frequently invited to various universities to serve as an industrymentor and speaker, including National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei NationalUniversity of the Arts, MingDao University, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology,
and the Performing Arts Club, among others. She has also received invitations to participate in international forums and showcases in multiple countries, including the SeoulMusic Week in South Korea, ACC World Music Festival, Ulsan Jazz Festival, Music LaneFestival Okinawa in Japan, Asia Music Summit in the Asian region, and the Global Toronto in Canada. In 2023, Peiti had the honour of being the first Taiwanese speaker to present at theWOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) forum. Additionally, she was invited to be a workshop instructor at the Korea Arts Management Service Center (KMAS), and served as a judge forthe Taiwan Music Week Showcase Selection.
Nora
KIIL
NORWAY | Chairwoman of the Board, Tromsø World Festival
As a teacher in art, Nora has been working within arts and culture for decades. Besides teaching she organized concerts, exhibitions and festivals for several years, until what was her hobby became her professional work.
For 10 years as executive director at Tromsø Performing Art Center (KulturHuset I Tromsø) she was in charge of more than 400 events per year.
In 2011, she reestablished her own company, KIIL Arts Facilitator, working as manager for artists within music and visual art, as producer, festival director, curator, mentor and project manager – always with a multicultural and transnational focus.
After more than 40 good years promoting and facilitating, Nora has now retired. But not completely.
She could not pass on the opportunity to work together with and supporting Vasil Gjuroski to establish and promote Tromsø World Festival.
Michał
HAJDUK
POLAND / Music curator, NOSPR jazz programmer
Michał Hajduk has been involved in the music business since 2001. He started as an independent concert booker/promoter, gaining experience as a music curator at the Centre For Contemporary Art in Warsaw, independent music venues manager, tour manager, and bands manager, co-programmer for festivals, and contributor for indie record labels.
Since 2008, he had worked with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, a state cultural institution promoting Polish culture around the world. As an alternative and jazz music curator, he created and developed strategies for the alternative music sector and co-organized a number of events and conferences in Poland and all over the world under the label “Don’t Panic! We’re from Poland”.
Since 2019, he has cooperated with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice as a programmer.
Lama
HAZBOUN
JORDAN | Festival director, producer
A music industry professional, festival director, event producer, cultural manager and consultant, Lama has been operating in the music and cultural field for the past two decades in Jordan and the Middle East.
She is the founder of the first independent music and cultural event management company OrangeRed in 2004 in Amman, Jordan, a company that has been seeking to enrich the cultural scene, to promote contemporary music in all its forms, and spread awareness towards the important need of making diversified quality music available, as well as making events and festivals accessible to the local audience. All in which a platform and a space for representing, promoting, and supporting Jordanian artists has been successfully created, enabling them to communicate their talent and experience regionally and internationally, through creating and maintaining cultural exchanges, and networking opportunities within the Arab world and initiating partnerships, all in collaboration with key cultural institutors, promoters, and funders, whether in the private or public sectors.
In 2012, Lama established the Amman Jazz Festival which annually celebrates diversity and cultural fusion, featuring International and local artists to present and work together to produce a vast variety of jazz expressions and fresh new sounds.
In 2022/2023 Lama served as the Project Lead of the EU Cultural Events Contract in Jordan.
Currently she serves as the Vice Chair of the International music network MusiConnect Asia, the producer of the annual Asia Music Summit, and she was recently appointed as the Vice Chair of MedeArts, the City of Artists Network Association in Jordan.
NicolaS
KUITCA
SPAIN | General Director of Córdoba Music Biennial
For ten years, Nicolas has been dedicated to the management of various projects such as Córdoba Música export group and Córdoba Music Biennial, and is part of the Musicians' Union.
He was born in the Province of Córdoba in 1984, studied Music and Psychology, and startedvarious musical projects at an early age. He founded Sonar, a civil association of independent musicians.
Sungchun
LEE
SOUTH KOREA | Chief Producer of Soundpuzzle, Executive Director and Secretary General of Seoul Music Week, Artistic Director of Seoul Gugak Week, Administration Manager of GloMMnet
Based in Seoul, he serves as the chief producer of SoundPuzzle, an international agency and record label. Additionally, he holds the positions of Secretary General and Executive Director of Seoul Music Week, an international showcase festival, and is the artistic Director of Seoul Gugak Week, a traditional music festival. He oversees the production of numerous festivals and music events across Korea while actively expanding his network through participation in international music markets.
With over 20 years of experience as a production director, Sungchun Lee has been instrumental in promoting Korean culture and facilitating the touring of international performing arts teams. His keen understanding and precise direction have led to the discovery and successful introduction of teams that garner acclaim at various international music markets such as World Music Expo, Visa for Music, Circulrt, English Folk Expo, and Mundial Montréal.
Lee's expertise spans many years as a composer and sound engineer, and he has been deeply engaged in festivals and international exchanges for the past decade. His recent work in immersive sound production and virtual augmented performance has garnered positive reviews from diverse quarters.
Kobe
LESTMANS
BELGIUM | Project Manager of FWMF
Kobe is the Project Manager of the Forum of Worldwide Music Festivals (FWMF), a global festival network where collaboration, inspiration and exchanging innovative ideas are the core activities.
He is also Communications Manager and Co-Programmer at the Sfinks Mixed festival in Belgium, a diverse, free 4-day music festival.
Svetlana
MA
TAIWAN | Culture officer
Jia-Ying Ma, dispatched by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, currently leads the Cultural Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Prague (TECO). The Division was established and began operations in 2023, and aims to promote exchanges and cooperation in various cultural areas between Taiwan and the Czech Republic. It also considers the Czech Republic as the hub in Central Europe, enhancing Taiwan's connection and partnership through cultural events and networking in the region.
Jia-Ying aspires to deepen mutual understanding between Taiwan and the Czech Republic through cultural exchanges.
David
MAIER
GERMANY | Cultural manager and musician
Being a musician, writer and cultural manager, David Maier knows both: the work for and with musicians as well as the various companies of the cultural industry – always between the genres of Rock, Pop, Jazz, World and beyond.
Since 2012, he has been the artistic director of several festivals, e. g. Worms: Jazz and Joy, developing and curating diverse artistic projects, events and venues in South-West Germany.
Since 2018, he has been the cultural commissioner of his hometown of Worms, being an expert on urban cultural planning and sustainability in culture.
Anna
MAŠÁTOVÁ
CZECHIA | Music manager and journalist
Anna is a music publicist, arts manager and art historian. She is deputy editor-in-chief of the cultural magazine Uni, her articles can also be found in Harmonie, Full Moon Magazine and other periodicals.
She has worked as Head of communications at the Rock for People festival, and was the director of the Nouvelle Prague music conference and showcase festival. She created Jazz Guide Czech Republic and World Music Guide Czech Republic. She led workshops, mentoring sessions, and spoke on panels at WOMEX, Ment Ljubljana, Nouvelle Prague, Czech Music Crossroads, MusicMatch, World Music Festival Bratislava, Meltingpot Forum, Kytary.cz, and other events.
She served on the grant committee of the Czech Ministry of Culture for Alternative Music and on the dramaturgical board of the SoundCzech music export agency. She cooperates with New York University in Prague. Since 2022, she has been an assistant professor at the Department of Music Production at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. Since 2023, she has been the editor of the ArtCafé show of Czech Radio Vltava.
Matar
NIANG
SENEGAL | Music manager
Matar Niang is the manager of African legend Cheikh Lô. He has been in the music industry for over 20 years and has dedicated his experience to helping and developing African musicians.
Ryuji
NODA
JAPAN | Director and Producer of Sakurazaka theater / Music Lane Festival Okinawa / Music-town Otoichiba and other events
Ryuji heads the Sakurazaka Theatre, a cinema located in Naha city, Okinawa. The venue hostsabout 50 live concerts every year, presenting bands of all kinds and genres. Many non-Japaneseartists have performed at the venue and festival.
Currently, Ryuji focuses on promoting Okinawan music to overseas, and building a music network with other Asian countries. He organizes the music conference and showcase Music Lane Festival Okinawa / Trans Asia Music Meeting which takes place every year at Music Lane, a site focused on Asian indie music. The next edition will be held in February 2025, applications will open in early summer 2024.
Hanka
PODHORSKÁ
CZECHIA | Manager, booking agent
Hanka is a music manager and booking agent at Indies Production, part of the Indies Scope label, as well as member of the SoundCzech dramaturgy board and vice-chair of the Music Managers Forum Czech Republic. In addition to concerts in the Czech Republic, she exports her bands to near and far abroad (Mexico, India, Pakistan, Borneo, Reunion Island, Egypt), regularly participates in international showcase festivals and conferences. Currently she represents bands such as Hrubá Hudba, BraAgas, Kafka Band, Lesní zvěř and Zimnice.
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Gavin
POONOOSAMY
MAURITIUS | Producer
and communications strategist
Curious citizen of the world, fascinated by Arts & related developments as practices in civil, private and public spheres; involved in different ways with diverse initiatives.
Proud founder and general manager of MAMA JAZ - unique month-long festival of creative music and jazz on the planet, based in Mauritius and harmonised withApril since 2016.
Happy supporter of Czech Music Crossroads, Seoul Music Week & Indian Ocean Music Market.
Vladimír
POTANČOK
SLOVAKIA | Music journalist
Vladimír works as an editor of the Slovenský národopis magazine, and is a long-time music editor of the Hudba sveta_FM radio show. He is also a member of the World Music Chart Europe panel. Since 2015, he has been a collaborator of the World Music Festival Bratislava and the World Music from Slovakia platform.
He studied at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology.
Rich
POTTER
GREAT BRITAIN | Booking agent at Midnight Mango
From a small child, Richard Potter was woken by his mother singing to him each morning, subtly being brainwashed into loving music. His first job in the music industry at 22 was regional PR assistant for artists like Muse, Garbage, Kylie Minogue, Björk and remarkably wasn’t discouraged by how unglamourous it turned out to be.
Later in his 30’s Rich fell into stage management, festival line up booking and promoting shows in his local area just so he could see bigger artists, not from the local area playing where he lived. After an unexpected conversation with a band who told them they’d not booked their festival season shows Rich offered to help and within 2 years had a roster of 10 artists on his new agency, Mojo Hobo. Over the years he’d had a few meetings (and beers) with the Midnight Mango Agency team who during covid offered him a job within their company. And now to the present day, Rich represents a wide range of artists for the agency, including 8 artists who tour worldwide.
Interesting fact: Rich actually lives in the Czech Republic though please don’t ask him to display his language skills.
Rómulo
SANJURJO
SPAIN | Cultural entrepreneur, Music producer and programmer, Consultant and creator of cultural brands
Rómulo is the director of JAU, a company dedicated to the direction and management of cultural events and projects, especially in the field of the music industry, Founder & Partner of DUBIDÁ, a company dedicated to digital music distribution, General coordinator of FOCUS GALICIA, professional meeting of Galician music, programmer and producer of ESTRELLA GALICIA in different spaces and festivals, Executive producer of the VANGAL festival, with an avant-garde program of emerging artists, and also Vice President of GloMMnet – Global Music Market Network, association of professional music markets and fairs around the world.
Previously, he headed SoL® The Music Network, SoL Madrid and SoL Buenos Aires; He also directed BAFIM – Buenos Aires International Music Fair (Argentina); was an executive producer and programmer of WOMEX in the 2014, 2016 and 2023 editions; directed musical creative laboratories such as NEXO (Argentina/Scotland) or CONECTA (Costa Rica). He has been advisor and producer of MICA – Argentine Cultural Industries Market, MICSUR – Southern Cultural Industries Market and MICATLANTICA – Atlantic Cultural Industries Market.
Dudu
SARR
SENEGAL | Youssou NDOUR International Management, Founder of Dakar Music Expo (DMX)
Dudu Sarr is a recognized expert in the music sector in Africa. After 20 years spent in London, Dudu Sarr came back to Dakar, where he founded the Dakar Music Expo, an international music fair, which third edition was held in February 2022. Dudu Sarr is Youssou N'Dour's international manager and dedicates his experience to the development of new African talent.
Fabio
SCOPINO
ITALY | Italian World Beat CEO, Funder and General Manager
For over 25 years, he has gained experience in entertainment development and cultural promotion covering roles such as Music Clubs Founder, Art Director, Event Manager, Artist Manager, Booking Agent.
Currently he's engaged in the management and development of an Italian professionals network to represent and promote abroad artists, festivals, fairs, agencies, cultural associations and promoters, operating through active partecipation in the major music fairs worldwide and all occasions of meeting and exchanges related to the global music market.
Italian World Beat is among the founding members of the global project “MusiConnect”, since 2021 Italian World Beat has been the organizer of a showcase and conferences festival named MusiConnect Italy.
Barry
STEWART
IRELAND/GERMANY | Senior booking agent at Midnight Mango
Barry is an internationally recognised booking agent, tour manager, stage manager and artist manager. He is from Dublin, Ireland, now based in Berlin since 2003.
Barry’s career in the music industry began in 1990 in Dublin. For many years, he concentrated more on tour managing and festival stage managing, tour booking was more of a side project. Over the last ten years he has become heavily involved in concert booking although still very passionate about tour managing and stage managing at festivals. It´s a great way to build relationships with promoters, artists and audiences and also a good way to keep in touch with new developments and trends within the industry.
Barry joined Midnight Mango in 2022 after working independently for many years. In his words: “I'm delighted to be a member of the MM team, it’s been a breath of fresh air to work with such a supportive and dynamic group of very talented people. I have spent many years working as a freelance agent, artist manager, stage manager and tour manager so I´ve had the opportunity to see the business from many sides. Joining Midnight Mango has given me the opportunity to expand my roster and develop new relationships within the industry. An old dog can indeed learn new tricks! ;-) … and this dog is very much looking forward to attending Czech Music Crossroads”.
Olivier
REY
FRANCE | Director of Babel Music
Olivier is a musician who has spent 20 years writing for a wide range of musical projects, and has been involved in the music world for over 30 years in the organization of major French festivals. He is director of Babel Music XP, the economic and cultural forum for contemporary world music, held in Marseille, France.
A veritable Mediterranean Hub for world music, the event takes place every year in March and brings together the entire music industry around an international trade fair, professional meetings and a festival.
Emma
RYCROFT
THE UNITED KINGDOM | Editor, Songlines
Emma has been the assistant editor of Songlines since November 2022, after graduating from Kings College, London that year. She enjoys a wide range of music – from the Pacific to Canada – but has an especial love for the music of South Africa, where she grew up, and Ireland, where she currently lives.
Veronika
VAJDA
HUNGARY | Project Manager, Hangvető
Veronika graduated as an ethnomusicologist with an interest in the music cultures of Central Eastern Europe and the South Caucasus. Since joining Hangvető’s team, she has worked as a project manager on large-scale international projects supported by Creative Europe such as MOST — The Bridge for Balkan Music, and UPBEAT — The European Showcase Platform for World Music.
Veronika was also the member of the production team behind BALKAN:MOST festival in Veszprém, European Capital of Culture 2023. The common mission of these projects is the support and capacity building of emerging artists active in the world and folk music scene.
Veronika
VALDOVÁ
CHZECHIA | Booking agent and manager
Veronika represents Czech and international artists of various musical genres as a booking agent. She also serves as a road manager for bands. She has been an artistic manager for years.
She offers over thirty musical projects, such as bands like Zooblasters, Trombenik, MoveBreakers, LuckySings, Le Čhavendar, Marcodose, Nikki Triiio, Yo Soy Indigo, Czardashians, among others. Among international artists, she represents Israeli singer Naom Nani Vazana, Slovenian duo Krajča Brothers, and the Italian fourteen-member street band Funkasin street band. She has been representing the male vocal group Voices for six years.Her portfolio also includes the highly acclaimed beatboxer Tiny Beat and DJ-producer MikkiM.
For the thirteenth year, she has been organizing the multi-genre music festival Zámeček, where she serves as the music programmer and manager. Veronika is a member of the Music Managers Forum and the vice-chairperson of the association RR z.s. With extensive experience in concert organization, she continues to work as a road manager throughout the Czech Republic, occasionally in Germany.
She participates in music conferences both in the Czech Republic and abroad.
Jarmila
VLČKOVÁ
SLOVAKIA | Music promoter
Promoter of ethnic and world music events since 2009. In 2011, she founded the Percussion Festival and in 2014 she initiated the WORLD MUSIC FROM SLOVAKIA (WOMUSK) platform, the objective of which is to support musicians from Slovak world music and to integrate Slovak music into the European scene.
Since 2016, Jarmila has been the Artistic director of the World Music Festival in Bratislava. The festival strives to reveal the global culture, from traditional to modern with a focus on world music, jazz and folklore.