Workshops

About

Manitoba Music is celebrating Black History Month with the launch of a new speaker series featuring Black music industry professionals. Kicking off Thursday February 24 with a keynote from Vivian Barclay, General Manager of Warner/Chappell Music Canada, the series aims to connect with and inspire emerging Black music entrepreneurs and musicians and recognize the immeasurable impact of the Black community on music and culture across the globe and here in Manitoba.

The series is presented through the BPM | Black Music Professionals program and in partnership with Black History Manitoba, and will feature influential speakers sharing their career journeys and lived experience working in the music business, showing different career paths. The series will be streamed live via Manitoba Music’s Facebook and YouTube. The BPM Speaker Series is made possible by the support of FACTOR.

Barclay is the internationally-respected General Manager of Warner/Chappell Music Canada. Experienced in radio, artist management, publicity, and promotion, she has composed music for television commercials and won awards for her film sound production and digital audio editing talents. She sits on the boards of Music Publishers Canada, SOCAN, the Toronto Music Advisory Committee, ADVANCE, Canada’s Black Music Collective, as well as Phemphat Entertainment Group, producers of the all-female Honey Jam Showcase, a non-profit organization which provides mentoring opportunities for artists. Barclay is also active in community development projects Habitat for Humanity and Food for the Poor.

Facilitated by artist and business owner Andrew Sannie, the BPM program was launched in February of last year to support Black music professionals in Manitoba, supported by ADVANCE, Canada's Black Music Business Collective. BPM has offered regular sessions via Zoom for participants to meet and network, join discussion groups, and learn from one another. Program participants also guest curate a monthly Spotify playlist, curated this month by R&B artist Trish Khay, to recognize and spotlight Black artists from Manitoba, celebrating their contributions and amplifying their voices.

“I feel the work we’ve done through the last year of sessions has made a major impact on the artists and business pros we’ve been lucky enough to see join us,” says Sannie. “This speaker series is the next step in the evolution of this program, and I'm excited to announce what we have in store over the coming year – I think we’ll continue the good work and impact many more.“

For more info about BPM and upcoming speaker series events, please visit manitobamusic.com/bpm. To find out how to get involved in BPM, please email bpm@manitobamusic.com.