Musical Chairs: September 28

A&R, LABEL MANAGER CHANGES AT IVY LEAGUE RECORDS

Mushroom Group promoted Ivy League Records’ Label Manager of six years, Marihuzka Cornelius, to A&R Manager.

Cornelius, a guitarist with Sydney punk trio Bloods who also directed some of their videos, joined Ivy League from Warner Music Australia’s domestic A&R team.

At Ivy League, she worked with The Rubens, Cloud Control, Alpine, Bad//Dreems, Tiny Little Houses and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever.

Mushroom Labels & Publishing COOChris Maundsaid, “Marihuzka has great A&R ears, artists love working with her and it’s time she stepped up into a full A&R role.

“We are really looking forward to her putting her stamp on the Ivy League roster.”

Moving into the Label Manager role is Madeleine O’Gorman. She was at 123 Agency and a presenter of 88.3 Southern FM’s all-new Australian music show On The Beat before joining Mushroom Group last May as Label Manager of its international label arm Liberator Music.

CAPITOL UK PROMOTES JO CHARRINGTON TO CO-PRESIDENT

Capitol Records UK, re-launched in 2013 by Universal Music as a frontline label, has promoted highly respected EVP A&R Jo Charrington to co-President.

In her A&R capacity, she signed Sydney’s 5 Seconds of Summer, although her biggest success story has been Sam Smith whose debut album In The Lonely Hour sold 12 million.

According to Capitol, Charrington has signed and/or A&R’d 24 platinum or multi-platinum albums during her career.

These included Paloma Faith, Scouting For Girls, JLS, Imogen Heap, Russell Watson, Lemar, Charlotte Church, Aloe Blacc and Olly Murs.

She becomes co-President alongside Capitol UK founder President Nick Raphael, whom she has been working with for 16 years in stints at London Records and Epic before they both moved to Universal Music in 2011.

Charrington and Raphael won the Music Week A&R award twice, in 2010 and 2015.

In 2015 Charrington was named Businesswoman Of The Year at the Music Week Women In Music Awards.

ADAM LEWIS EXITS AS SOLOTEL ENTERTAINMENT MANAGER

Adam Lewis this week leaves his role of Group Entertainment Manager at the Solotel hospitality group’s 30 venues – a role he took on in June 2015.

A music industry all-rounder, Sydney-based Lewis’ background includes festival and venue booking, FBi radio broadcasting, event promotion, media and communications, music writing, A&R and DJing.

More specifically he has been programming the Secret Garden festival since 2014 (and continues to do so) while revamping venues like Tokyo Sing Song and Waywards, and keeping Kings X Hotel alive.

ARN COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR MATTHEW GRANGER DEPARTS

After six years at Australian Radio Network, Matthew Granger has left the company.

He joined in August 2011 after working in TV sales at Seven West Media and Prime Media.

In February, ARN set up a new commercial structure, with Emma-Jayne Owens joining in the newly created role of Chief Commercial Officer.

At the time he was promoted to Commercial Director – NSW and Queensland.

DAMIELOU, STAINES, AT SHARE SPACE

Singer songwriters, music video directors and YouTube creatives Damielou and Zachary Staines have joined the new Sony Music online reality show The ShareSpace as its first cast members.

Damielou works as a theatre floor manager on the weekends to fund her online career and relaxes with Poi, a form of fire spinning.

Staines learned how to play the piano by watching YouTube videos in 2007 and stated out helming music videos for artists as Jess Conte.

BOY GEORGE’S TV CAREER EXTENDS TO CANADA

Boy George’s TV mentoring role on The Voice Australia and X Factor UKnow leadsto Canada’s The Launch, which is being shot in Toronto.

The six-part TV A&R series also includes as mentors Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx, OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, Shania Twain, Fergie and Canadian singer Alessia Cara.

Contestants have to write a song in two days.

The Launch format looks likely to be adopted in Australia.

It was always set up to become a global franchise and on of those involved, alongside Taylor Swift’s manager Scott Borchetta, is Paul Franklin’s Eureka Productions, which this year co-produced The Voice Australia for the Nine Network.

UMPG’S GARY MILLER FEELS THE SPIRIT

As Spirit Music Group aggressively chases the sync market, it has brought in Universal Music Publishing Group veteran of 18 years Gary Miller as its SVP of Creative Services.

“Over the past few years, Spirit has been pursuing an aggressive global growth plan that’s generated a lot of results for the company and for our songwriters,” says COO/CFO Jon Singer.

“That success starts with people – a business can’t reach its goals without having the right team in place, and Gary is a talented, experienced executive who will be a key contributor in helping Spirit and its songwriters reach new heights.”

ATLANTIC NAMES FIRST WEST COAST PRESIDENT

Atlantic Records’ first West Coast President is Kevin Weaver. He was previously its President of film and television and EVP of Atlantic Records Group.

Weaver has been a success story with soundtracks. He won a Grammy for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, while getting platinum certifications for Furious 7 (which included Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s smash hit See You Again which sold 4 million copies in the US) and Suicide Squad.

GPAC GM TO STEP DOWN

Jill Smith, GM of the Geelong Performing Arts Centre in Victoria is stepping down next year after a decade.

GPAC Chair Michelle Quigley said Smith worked to make not only the venue but the city’s performing arts scene as “a key part of the future of the region and Geelong as it moves to develop its strategy as a clever and creative city.”

Aside from ensuring that young people had access to the arts, one of Smith’s on-going legacies is the Arts for Life Endowment Fund which has collected half a million dollars in sponsorship and donations.

SOPRANO TO HEAD CLASSICAL VOICE AT WAAPA

Opera Australia’s main soprano, the multi-award winning Emma Matthews, takes over as Head of Classical Voice at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University in January.

NEW HIRES AT PLEDGEMUSIC

Direct-to-fan music platform PledgeMusic has tapped two music industry vets for its team.

Kevin Kiernan, formerly of Sony Music, is Head of Artist Solutions and Nate Baker (Deezer, iTunes) is the new Artist & Label Relations Manager.

JESSE COX TO OVERSEE ORIGINAL CONTENT AT AUDIBLE

One time FBi Sydney presenter and ABC Radio National Features Editor Jesse Coxis now Head of Original Content at Audible Australia.

He will oversee the development of long form audiobook originals and podcasts across fiction, documentary and comedy.

At the ABC, Cox was an executive team member behind its This is About and Trace podcasts.

MORE ABC CHANGES

ABC Radio veteran of 34 years, Wayne Shearman, presents his final program on ABC Wide Bay on October 2.

At the Sydney office, News Director for the past two and a half years, Shane McLeod, has left.

DELALANDE BOWS OUT OF K ROCK/BAY FM

Dani Delalande, a Creative Writer at K Rock and BAY FM Geelong, is bowing out in early October.

FADER PROMOTES TWO

Fader Magazine has promoted senior writer Rawiya Kameir to Deputy Editor and Night Editor Olivia Craighead to Associate Social Media Editor.

MARTIN PATEN TO LEAD FCAC

Martin Paten takes over as Director and CEO of the Footscray Community Arts Centre in Melbourne in late October.

He succeeds Jade Lillie, who is leaving in November, a recent recipient of a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship.

Paten, most recently Director of Castlemaine State Festival for ten years,

He is on the board of Regional Arts Victoria and currently Deputy Chair of Regional Arts Australia.