About BreakOut West

Kurt is one of the preeminent entertainment lawyers in Canada and has been actively involved in the music industry for the past two decades, as a lawyer, musician, public speaker and artist advocate. His clients from coast to coast range from Juno Award-winning artists, record labels, publishers and managers, to the smallest up-and-coming songwriters. He is considered a thought leader in the music industry and has been featured in Canadian Musician, Canadian Lawyer, SOCAN Magazine, and more, and is interviewed often on music industry podcasts around the world.

Kurt became partner at national firm Miller Thomson LLP in 2023 and is passionate about utilizing his knowledge as both artist and lawyer to help others in the music industry. For more information, check out Kurt’s website lawyerdrummer.com or follow him on socials @lawyerdrummer.

Vanessa Kuzina, Executive Director of Manitoba Music, brings over two decades of music industry experience to her role. She served as Director, Artist Management and a senior member of the artist management team at Six Shooter Records. She previously worked at Interstellar Rodeo music festival in Winnipeg and Edmonton as Community Development Manager and Artist Liaison. Vanessa was a mentor through Manitoba Music’s Music Business Mentorship Program and previously served on the Manitoba Music and the West End Cultural Centre’s Board of Directors.

Prior to her career industry-side, Vanessa was a founding member, band leader, and songwriter for the internationally acclaimed decade old band Oh My Darling. Vanessa is a proud mom and a passionate fan of Dolly Parton.

Carly Klassen is the Executive Director at Alberta Music. She sits on several boards and committees including Canada’s Music Incubator and West Anthem.

Her love of music is perhaps only surpassed by her passion for renovating vintage tent-trailers. Her most recent acquisition was a 14 ft, 1991 Palomino MXL which she stripped to the bone and rebuilt before pulling it up The Alaska Highway (and back) in 2020.

One need not be surprised to find various pieces of coloured thread stuck to her clothing; evidence of her many cross-stitching endeavours.

She enjoys the company of her fury office assistant, Herbie. He also serves as Chief Executive Foot Warmer.

1) Andrew is a massive James Taylor fan.

2) Andrew is in Canadian hip hop group, The Lytics

3) Andrew is a lifelong Toronto Raptors fan

I joined the board as means of using my voice to advocate for hip hop artists in Western Canada, believing that the only way to impact a system is to be on the inside.

Kaelen Klypak is the Export and Program Manager at SaskMusic.

Kaelen has been actively involved in the Canadian music industry for the past 22 years as an artist manager, consultant, musician, production manager, promoter, and publisher. He is an active drummer and recently launched a synth-based project called June Thrasher. Kaelen is also a jury member for various music organizations and sits on numerous cultural boards.

Beth Dart is an arts administrator with nearly 20 years experience in festivals, music, theatre, and interdisciplinary performance. She joined the Music Yukon team in 2022, and stepped into the Executive Director role in 2024. On the creative side, Beth is a theatre artist who rarely makes art in a theatre. She has produced and directed over 20 new works. Alongside her sister, she is the Founder and Artistic Producer of Catch the Keys Productions, an award winning scrappy indie theatre company known for site specific immersive creations and horror through a feminist lens.

Kim is the Producer of Content Creation at APTN. She also dabbles in a lot of hobbies…

SFX Makeup (love horror & gore lol)

Loves to fish – Can be found on her boat hitting lakes in the summer and found camping on the ice in the winter

And has a huge movie collection. All started from her job at Blockbuster. Bucket list is to visit the last standing Blockbuster in Bend, Oregon.

Multi-instrumentalist, Lisa Jacobs, declares the bass guitar her most beloved. Playing her first blues festival at age 12, she has gone on to write, record, music direct and perform with a variety of artists, including platinum recording pop artist Jocelyn Alice, Marshall (Walk Off The Earth), Jill Barber, Terri Clark, Kyle McKearney, Paul Reddick, Colin Linden, Jimmy Rankin (The Rankin Family), Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, Wide Mouth Mason, Suzie Vinnick, Oscar Lopez, Amy Bishop, and Jann Arden (a personal highlight). In addition to working as a session musician, Lisa released an EP with her original project – jocelyn & lisa- in 2012. A song from that project, “Bound to You” went gold in Canada after being re-released by Jocelyn Alice in 2018.

Lisa has a degree in music therapy (with a minor in jazz performance on electric bass). As a certified music therapist, she’s had the opportunity to create music with people of varied abilities (autism, cerebral palsy, hearing/visual impairments, brain injuries etc) and ages (infants to 102yrs) in many different settings including schools, hospitals and even a maximum security prison. Lisa sits on the board of the Music Therapy Association of Alberta and has recently delved into the role of MC – Including being a co-host for the 2021 Music Cities Convention. Although she loves to wander the planet, Calgary, Alberta is Lisa’s home.