For three years, the British Council has been putting together a series of professional events for the representatives of the music industry – Selector PRO. Our goal is to strengthen the connection between the music sectors of Great Britain and Ukraine, create relevant educational opportunities for artists, managers, as well as music event organizers, support growth of new talent and promote effective business processes in the music industry.
In 2017, our team organized two Selector PRO music forums. The first event dealt with the distribution and sale of music in this digital era. The next conference focused on music technology and experiments at the junction of music and other art forms. 23 sector professionals attended the sessions from both the UK and Ukraine. Among them: Anna Jatskevich, A&R manager at Warp Records; Tabitha Thorlu-Bangura, project manager and presenter at London’s NTS Radio; Chris Cook, business editor at the Complete Music Update agency; sound producer Ken Nelson (Coldplay, Okean Elzy); Ukrainian artists Nata Zhyzhchenko (ONUKA) and Yevhen Filatov (The Maneken), Miloš Jelić of Okean Elzy, Valeria Chachibaya, co-founder of Radio Aristocrats and the (A) Prize music awards, and many more.
Catch videos from past Selector PRO sessions on our Youtube-channel.
In autumn 2018, we presented a new format of Selector PRO events – intensive workshops developed together with instructors from the British and Irish Modern Music Institute (BIMM) , an influential institution in modern music. We organized three modules dealing with the basics of music business and project management, organizing live events, as well as artist management and promotion in Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Watch the Q&A with Gabby Chelmicka, former manager of Robbie Williams, Artist Management module leader at BIMM. Conversation topic: creatives management and mental health in the music industry.
In addition, as part of Selector PRO we work closely together with music conferences in Ukraine (Atlas Music Hub Conference, RespublicaFEST Conference, Music Conference Ukraine), where visitors can establish contacts with reputable professionals of the British music industry and learn about new extraordinary initiatives and business cases. We also offer Ukrainian music sector professionals to participate in Britain’s most exciting music event – The Great Escape showcase. In 2019, our delegates were Ivan Dorn tour manager Kateryna Maliukova and music promoter Yevhen Kibets.
Soon we will announce Selector PRO professional events planned for autumn 2019 – spring 2020.