WCMA Board of Directors

 

Kurt Dahl 1.jpegKurt Dahl

One Bad Son / Murphy and Company LLP (President)

Kurt is an entertainment lawyer and musician, and has been actively involved in the music industry for the past two decades. His clients range from Juno Award-winning artists, record labels, publishers and managers, to the smallest up-and-coming songwriters. His band One Bad Son has been together for 19 years and has released number one songs and toured arenas with Def Leppard, the Rolling Stones and Judas Priest. He has been featured in Canadian Musician, Canadian Lawyer, SOCAN Magazine, and is considered a thought leader in the area of entertainment law. If you see Kurt with headphones in, he is likely listening to Bob Dylan or Joni Mitchell, or one of his clients.

 

Carly Klassen.jpgCarly Klassen

Alberta Music (Vice-President)

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.

 

LMacPherson.jpegLindsay MacPherson

Music BC (Treasurer)

 Lindsay is the Executive Director of Music BC, a provincial industry association advancing the careers of British Columbia's music creatives and industry through Training, Mentorship, Export & Professional Development opportunities.

 

Andrew Sannie.jpgAndrew Sannie

Grape Experiential / The Lytics (Secretary)

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 black and white.jpgKaelen Klypak

June Thrasher/SaskMusic

 

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.

 

 

Scott Maynard.jpgScott Maynard

Music Yukon

 Scott Maynard has performed for four generations of British royalty, and once sang backup vocals on a song by Elton John that went on to be the worst selling single in the history of Parlophone records. It still probably outsold 2006's Are We Not Horses, by Rock Plaza Central, of which he is a core member. He is honoured to represent the Yukon on the board of the WCMA.


Vanessa Kuzina_Manitoba Music_Kendra Hope Photography(portrait).jpg

Vanessa Kuzina

Manitoba Music

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.


 

Kimberly Cleave.jpgKimberly Cleave

APTN

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. 

 

image0 (2).jpegLisa Jacobs

 

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. 

 

         Western Canadian Music Alliance and BreakOut West staff team:

           Michael Dawson – Executive Director

            Johnny Marlow – Submissions and Administration

            Heather Sharpe – Logistics Manager

            Sarah Shandl – Wide Tide Entertainment – Marketing Manager

            Liam Prost – Programming Manager

            Shannon Erb - Bookkeeper

 

BreakOut West Indigenous Liaison Committee:

Shaneen Robinson-Desjarlais - Indigenous Music West
Ashley Bieniarz - Kwiat
Donny Parenteau - Indigenous Music Association
Jenny Money - Okanagan Indigenous Art Society
Matt Maw -Red Music Rising
Miesha Louie - Miesha and the Spanks
Forrest Eaglespeaker - The North Sound

BreakOut West Conference Committee:

Alex Wyder - High Tide Artists (BC)
Kurt Dahl - Murphy and Company
Carly McFadden - Folk on the Rocks / Victory Pool
Claire Boning - Misfit Management
Mickhel - Gl0bal
Cary Pratt - Prairie Cat
Umong Shah - Fortitude Music
Francis Arevalo - Artist/Manager
Lana Winterhalt - Good + Plenty