ALBERTA MUSIC CITIES CONVENTION GOES VIRTUAL

THE GLOBAL GATHERING WILL BE GOING FULLY VIRTUAL, FROM FEBRUARY 10-11, 2022.

(January 21, 2022 / Alberta, Canada) The Alberta Music Cities Convention will be going fully virtual, from February 10-11, 2022, with global policymakers, music industry professionals, academics, and city leaders from around the world gathering remotely.

“Due to the COVID-19 situation in Alberta and around the world, and to ensure the safety of our attendees, we felt an entirely virtual option was the best way forward,” said Andrew Mosker, Co-Founder and Chair, West Anthem and Founding President and CEO, National Music Centre. “Finding ways to help foster the music ecosystem in this province is a vital conversation, especially as we continue to navigate the challenges caused by the pandemic.”

The convention will be live streamed from venues in Calgary and Edmonton, with international speakers joining remotely from 15+ countries in six continents. The event will feature a unique online platform that will allow participants to see who's attending, directly message other delegates, ask questions via the session chat, and more. All talks will be recorded, allowing ticket holders to get full access no matter what time zone they are in.

Scaling Up Music Cities: Cultivating the Future of Alberta is the theme of the 2022 edition of the annual conference that will feature a carefully curated lineup of international speakers. Hosted alongside West Anthem, National Music Centre and Alberta Music, the event follows the publication of the West Anthem Music Ecosystem Study in October 2020, and will provide a stage to further the conversation around music’s pivotal role in cities, something the host organizations have been advocating for years.

Music Cities Convention programming will cover topics such as music city policies, diversifying economies with music, the economic impact of music in a city, music and technology, music for community-building and for supporting diversity and inclusion, the infrastructural and planning aspects of developing a music city, incentive programs for musicians, the nighttime economy, and more. The full schedule can be found here.

Live and streamed performances from some of Alberta’s most treasured venues, including the King Eddy on Calgary’s Music Mile and the Starlite Room in Edmonton, will also be woven throughout the virtual convention. Artist performances include Sargeant X Comrade, T. Buckley, Amy Nelson, Shaela Miller, K-Riz, Fox Opera, and Samantha Savage Smith, to name a few.

General Admission tickets are $150 for the online convention and can be purchased here. Through the generous support of the Edmonton Arts Council, tickets to Edmonton-based musicians and music professionals are being made available at a discounted price. Tickets for eligible attendees are set at $10 for an online ticket (a total of 90% in savings). Music Cities Events is matching their generosity by subsidizing the ticket cost for all other musicians in Alberta outside Edmonton at the same rate. The Alberta Artist Subsidy Program can be accessed here.

Learn more about the virtual edition of the 10th global Music Cities Convention at musiccitiesevents.com/alberta-mcc, and join the virtual conversation with delegates from around the world, from February 10-11, 2022.

Confirmed Speakers:

• Amy Woodhouse, Head of Policy, Projects and Participation, Children in Scotland (UK)
• Andrew Mosker, Chair, West Anthem and President & CEO National Music Centre (Canada)
• Amanda Burgener, President & Co-Founder, Curbside Concerts (Canada)
• Amy Bishop, Musician & Songwriter (Canada)
• Ashley Bieniarz, Indigenous Music Development Coordinator, Manitoba Music (Canada)
• Ben Price, Production Manager, Crack Magazine (UK)
• Brad Bradford, ​​City Councillor, Ward 19, Beaches-East York, City of Toronto (Canada)
• Diana Hopeson, CEO, Ghana Music Publishing (Ghana)
• Devon Laney, President & CEO, 36 Degrees North Co. (USA)
• Eileen Chai, Co-Founder, 3am Music Collective & Strings For Kindness (Singapore)
• Erin Benjamin, President & CEO Canadian Live Music Association (Canada)
• Felix Barros, President, Music Tech Association Chile (Chile)
• Gideon Feldman, Head of Programmes, Attitude is Everything (UK)
• Kaley Beisiegel, Lead Consultant, West Anthem (Canada)
• Kate Duncan, CEO, The Push (Australia)
• Leah Flanagan, Manager, National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Music Office (Australia)
• Luke Azevedo, Vice President, Creative Industries & Film Commissioner, Calgary Economic Development (Canada)
• Marc Brown, Founder & CEO, Byta (Canada)
• María Rut Reynisdóttir, Head of Cultural Office at The City of Reykjavik (Iceland)
• Marie von der Heydt, Senior Policy Officer, Senate Department for Culture and Europe (Germany)
• Martin Elbourne, Co-Founder of Music Cities Convention, Co-Founder of The Great Escape and Main Booker, Glastonbury Festival (UK)
• Maud Salvi, Executive Director, Sled Island Music & Arts Festival (Canada)
• Maurizio Vitale, Co-Founder Movement Entertainment & President, Turismo Torino e Provincia (Italy)
• Michael Rodrigues, 24 Hour Economy Commissioner, City of Sydney (Australia)
• Naomi Pohl, Deputy General Secretary, Musicians'​ Union (UK)
• Patti Pon, President & CEO, Calgary Arts Development (Canada)
• Rebecca O'Brien, Executive Director, Inglewood BIA (Canada)
• Ricky Graboski, Executive Director, The Vera Project (USA)
• Robert Lavia, CEO, UMUSIC Hotels (FL, US)
• Rochelle Riley, Director, Arts and Culture, City of Detroit (USA)
• Terry Rock, President & CEO, Platform Calgary (Canada)
• Thom Mahler, Urban Initiatives and Program Lead, Downtown Strategy, City of Calgary (Canada)
• Tobba Andersson, Project Manager, Zorch Productions (Sweden)
• Sirasar Boonma, Founder, Hear & Found (Thailand)
• Shain Shapiro, Founder and Group CEO at Sound Diplomacy & Executive Director at Center for Music Ecosystems (UK)
• Steve Wood, Grammy Nominated Leader, Founder of Northern Cree & School Administrator, MESC (Canada)
• Vel Omazic, Co-Founder & Executive Director, Canada's Music Incubator (Canada)
• Yngvil Vatn Guttu, Executive Director, Northern Culture Exchange/ Music Alaska (Alaska, USA)

ABOUT MUSIC CITIES CONVENTION
Music Cities Convention is the biggest global event exploring the uses and importance of music in the development of cities all around the world. From community development to education, economic development, employment and health, music impacts a number of issues prevalent in city planning. Music Cities Convention will bring together the top minds from municipalities, brands, real estate, health, events, academia, non-profits, the music industry and more, to introduce new thinking, action and structure to develop more vibrant, global cities.

ABOUT MUSIC CITIES EVENTS
Music Cities Events organizes world-leading international conferences on the topic of music cities, produces the leading international awards ceremony on music cities, and runs the Music Cities Community, the first-ever platform for professionals in all industries using music to create more value in towns, cities and places. In everything Music Cities Events does it aims to showcase the best uses of music by individuals, organizations and cities all over the world.

ABOUT WEST ANTHEM
West Anthem’s vision is to become a recognized advocate and champion for promoting the benefits of developing music-friendly cities in Alberta. By establishing a diversified and credible voice from Alberta’s creative music industry and its related ecosystem, West Anthem will help foster new conversations that will highlight cultural, social and economic benefits as well as the necessary strategies required for developing music cities in Alberta. Our vision is to make Alberta the leading music cities province in Western Canada. Creating vibrant music cities in Alberta will help diversify the economy, create jobs and amplify the evolving cultural, social and economic identity of Alberta across Canada and around the world. West Anthem’s primary activities are: advocacy; commissioning and publishing reports about the breadth and scope of Alberta’s music ecosystem and producing events and gatherings to share information, knowledge and best practices about the benefits of music cities. For more information, please visit westanthem.com. 

About National Music Centre | Centre National de Musique
The National Music Centre (NMC) has a mission to amplify the love, sharing, and understanding of music and is preserving and celebrating Canada’s music story inside its home at Studio Bell in the heart of the East Village in Mohkinstsis (Calgary) on Treaty 7 territory. A registered charity with programs that include exhibitions, artist development, performance, and education, NMC is inspiring a new generation of music lovers. For more information about NMC’s onsite activities, please visit studiobell.ca. To check out the NMC experience online, including video-on-demand performances, made-in-Canada stories, and highly entertaining educational content, visit amplify.nmc.ca.

Media contacts:
Camila Anino, Marketing & Partnerships Manager
Music Cities Events
T. +34 673 013 680
camila@sounddiplomacy.com | @musiccitiesevents

Julijana Capone, Senior Publicist
National Music Centre
T. 403.543.5123 | C. 403.710.4758
julijana.capone@nmc.ca | @nmc_canada