20 February 2023
Newsdesk
London’s Abbey Road Studios today announces the return of its annual Abbey Road Equalise festival on Saturday 4 March to coincide with International Women’s Day. Comprising panel talks and workshops with leading female figures from across the music industry, tickets are free and available via ballot, while the event will also be livestreamed on Abbey Road’s YouTube channel.
Designed to inspire and empower young women aspiring to a career in music, Abbey Road Equalise was borne out of the studios’ ambition to encourage more women to consider engineering and production as a credible career path, given less than 5% of producers and engineers are female. Since launching in March 2020, Equalise has explored careers in film scoring, A&R, songwriting and getting started as an artist. While music creation remains at the heart of Abbey Road Equalise, 2023 sees the festival embrace new themes including music technology.
Highlights this year include:
Getting Signed, exploring what managers and A&Rs are looking for, hosted by Radio X & Classic Rock’s Sunta Templeton with Decca’s Senior Head of A&R Rachel Holmberg, Olivia Edwards-Allen (manager for Cat Burns and Debbie) and Roya Nadry, Island’s A&R & Data Strategy Manager
Scoring For Film, hosted by Scala Radio’s Jenny Nelson with award-winning composers Jocelyn Pook and Debbie Wiseman OBE alongside Oleta Haffner (recipient of the 2022 AMPAS Jonas Gwangwa Award)
Careers In Music, helmed by Abbey Road Institute’s Hannah Fitzgerald in conversation with BPI Chair YolanDa Brown OBE DL, LiveSource Co-Founder & Director Debbie Gayle, Metropolis Music / Live Nation’s Alexandra Ampofo, Murray Chalmers PR’s MD Sarah Henderson and ELAM’s Katy Hall
Women Do Tech hosted by Abbey Road Red Board Member & Virgin Music UK President Vanessa Bosåen with Christine Osazuwa, Chief Strategy officer at Shoobs, DAACI’s CEO Rachel Lyske, XONE’s CIO Alica Molito and Xann Schwinn, founder of Biiah
Music Production 101 hosted by Abbey Road mastering engineer Christian Wright in conversation with artist / producer Kay Young (whose brilliant new single The Way You Look At Me was part-recorded at Abbey Road), Abbey Road senior runner Sarah Meyz with more names TBC
The Craft of Songwriting hosted by Radio X & Classic Rock’s Sunta Templeton with Porridge Radio’s Dana Margolin, solo artist Lau.ra and Lime Garden’s Chloe Howard
Mark Robertson, Head of Brand & Communications, Abbey Road Studios says: “Inspiring and empowering future generations of music and production talent is an ongoing commitment at Abbey Road, with our Equalise and Amplify programmes well established within the calendar. Getting more women into a wide variety of roles within the music industry remains vitally important so it’s hugely rewarding to witness the value of these sessions, from the audience’s hunger for insights and advice to forging new connections and friendships with those on a similar path.”
The full schedule for Abbey Road Equalise is here: abbeyroad.com/equalise
