Berklee and Henley Business School Bring Music Industry Workshop to Africa

On June 21, Berklee College of Music and Henley Business School presented the inaugural Music Industry Workshop Series, a program of virtual sessions focused on helping independent African musicians succeed in the music industry. More information about the series can be found on the workshop’s website. 

The event consisted of four sessions that focused on a range of topics, including entrepreneurship for independent musicians, digital brand marketing, becoming a world-class artist, and online music performance and songwriting. The sessions featured speakers and presenters from Henley Business School; Berklee’s campuses in Boston and Valencia, Spain; and the Berklee Abu Dhabi Center. 

“This workshop series is the beginning of a new journey of learning that brings together leading experts from Berklee and Henley Business School,” said Jason Camelio, assistant vice president of Berklee Global Initiatives. “Moving forward, we have a unique opportunity to embrace the modality of remote and hybrid learning and collaboration to expand our network of peers and partners, to break through the barrier of distance to become more informed about cultures, and to explore the potential creative outlets different markets present.”

One of the standout sessions was Becoming a World-Class Artist, with British music industry executive Stephen Budd, the director of artist and producer management company Stephen Budd Music Ltd., the OneFest festival, and Damon Albarn’s Africa Express project, and the cofounder of the NH7 Weekender festivals in India and the DMZ Peace Train festival in South Korea. He also produced Amnesty International and Sofar Sounds' Give a Home global concert series, and created War Child’s Passport Back to the Bars and Music Venues Trust's Passport: Back to Our Roots concert series to raise money for music venues endangered by the pandemic. In June 2017, Budd completed a three-year term as cochairman of the Music Managers Forum (MMF), the trade body for artist managers. He also DJs African music of the 1970s on Worldwide FM radio as well as at festivals and clubs across the world. 

Henley Business School speakers included Dr. Adeyinka Adewale, a management scholar, international speaker, and business coach; Ben Laker, a renowned scholar and educator; David Maclean, head of virtual learning; John Vlismas, head of strategy and marketing at OGO Productions and associate faculty; and Barry van Zyl, chair of the Henley Africa Alumni community. Berklee’s speakers and presenters included Camelio; Betsie Becker, assistant vice president of global program development; Ray Seol, assistant director of Global Initiatives; Gael Hedding, executive director of the Berklee Abu Dhabi Center; Mayssa Karaa, artistic director of the Berklee Abu Dhabi Center; and McKinley Short, international career coordinator for Berklee Valencia. 

“We are excited to be partnering with Berklee on this meaningful initiative, aimed at job readiness in the hugely talented Nigerian music space,” said van Zyl. “This forms part of an ongoing commitment by Henley to build the people who build the businesses that build Africa.”

Henley Business School is a pioneer in global distance learning, with operations in 17 countries across the world and more than 84,000 alumni across 160 countries. Its Johannesburg campus is consistently ranked as South Africa's top graduate business school.