Nominees

Tanyel Gumushan – Birmingham City University, School of Media
Winner
Tanyel is currently in her second year of working in the Live Music team at PPL PRS Ltd., licensing live music events and venues to ensure that members receive their royalties. She leads the Variety elements of licensing and plays a big part in licensing theatrical productions. Outside the office she is a freelance music journalist (Clash, DIY, NME), having previously been the Music Editor for tmrw magazine where she ran the digital content as well as the bi-monthly print magazine, for which Tanyel secured covers with the likes of Little Mix and Niall Horan. Additionally Tanyel works with Universal Music to produce biographies and PR for their new signings. These have included winners of The Voice who sign deals with Polydor records, and with Ramz – who was recently nominated for a BRIT Award.
Tanyel is currently working on curating an online museum of popular culture that will act as a time capsule for the 90s+. It covers topics from why we hate certain typefaces, to whether Disney are brainwashing us with their marketing, to why mom jeans are fashionable again. The idea, named The Aubergine Archives, comes from so many people conducting important academic research at university, that unfortunately isn’t seen by many people. The website acts as a tool to display research and findings, but in a simpler way – with soundbites, definitions, visual artefacts and a more colloquial tone. However it strives to be completely credible.

Ed Juniper – Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA)
Special Mention – Creative
Ed Juniper graduated LIPA with a 1st in music in 2018. Having managed to get two weeks work experience in the marketing department at Polydor Records, this quickly became five weeks, and ultimately concluded with him being given the yearlong internship with the digital department. Since then, Ed has worked across a variety of artist campaigns at one of the UK’s most successful major labels, with a diverse roster including J Cole, The 1975, Take That and Sam Fender to name a few. Ed was part of the team that delivered the U.K. number 1 and BRIT award winning third album from The 1975, helping pioneer a number of digital firsts for the band, including their use of messaging bots for the campaign and Instagram Giphy stickers that were viewed over 34 million times. This campaign is nominated for the Music Week marketing campaign of the year.
Whilst still within his internship tenure, Ed now takes on the role of digital marketing manager for several projects including Interscope signee and Kanye prodigy Sheck Wes, emerging pop sensation GRACEY and Drill/Pop producer duo Dr Vades.

Jo Howarth – Southampton Solent University
Special Mention – Business
Jo graduated with a first class honours degree in Music Management from Solent University in July 2018, and now works at global artist management company Tap Management (Dua Lipa, Ellie Goulding, Dermot Kennedy, Grace Carter). She supports two senior managers across their varied artist roster, assisting on artists such as Rat Boy, Danny Jones and Chelcee Grimes amongst others.
Jo worked diligently to gain valuable industry experience whilst studying at Solent. She interned at Riverman Management (Placebo, Deaf Havana), took on artist liaison roles at various festivals, and was selected as one of the youngest members of the BRITs Voting Academy, as well as managing a roster of her own artists. Jo has a passion for championing women in music, and runs a growing women in music network. Whilst at Solent, Jo organised a successful conference and networking event aimed at creating an innovative learning and networking platform for young women in the industry.

Daniela Segewiss – Leeds Beckett University
Special Mention – Tech
Daniela was first introduced to the crazy world of Rock’n’Roll when she was 13. Having caught the bug there and then, she tried to shadow as many engineers as possible until she finished school. Daniela started her professional career with an apprenticeship as audio technician at a German broadcasting station. Followed by a BSc (Hons) Music Technology at Leeds Beckett University. She worked in local venues in Leeds throughout her studies and started touring in her third year finishing most of her uni work on the road.

Since graduating Daniela has developed her career in live sound and is now a very successful and respected Front of House and Monitor mixer and tech. She has worked for a diverse range of artists including Suzi Q, Pete Doherty, Kaiser Chiefs, The Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers, Paul Carrick, Billy Ocean, The Stranglers, Travis, James and 10CC to name only a few. She is now monitor engineer for The Sweet (UK) and Opeth (UK) and sound engineer for Frontm3n.

Conor Burns – Bucks New University
Conor graduated from Bucks New University in 2016 with a Music and Live events Degree. Before this, he attended a BRIT funded performing arts college in his home city of Birmingham, where he studied Music Performance on Guitar. Conor has always been a music fanatic from a young age and his passion came in the form of attending gigs and festivals throughout his teenage years.
Using his spare time during his Music and Live Events degree, allowed Conor to gain as much industry work experience as possible. Working at the likes of the Isle Of Wight Festival, SSE Arena Wembley and in his first year, he secured an internship with what was previously Count of Ten to work on one their prestigious events Truck Festival. This turned into a 3-year-long working relationship, alongside his degree, working within marketing, assisting a small 2-day 3000 capacity festival to grow to a full 15,000 capacity, 3 and a half day sell-out highlight of the festival calendar. Truck Festival is now part of Broadwick Live’s roster and he was fortunate to then be offered an entry-level role following his graduation and promoted within 12 months to Marketing Executive, overseeing all branded activity within the festival.
Conor recently won ‘Smart Marketing Campaign’ at the Independent Festival Awards and currently works as part of the Printworks London Artist Liaison team on the side, as well as Y Not, Tramlines, Rewind Festivals and Festival Number 6 during the summer.

Courtney Gray – Southampton Solent University
Courtney Gray graduated from Solent University in 2018 with a first-class BA Hons Degree in Popular Music Performance. Courtney’s original band, DJUNO, won a competition to record the famous Abbey Road Studios working with renowned engineer producer Sam Okell.
Now as an alumni of Solent, she is working on new avenues to enhance her music career. She is currently shadowing producer and engineer, Tom Gibson of Blackhill Studio. Due to Courtney’s unique quirky vocal style and performances, she was asked to guest on a production by international producer Sie Medway-Smith (of Depeche Mode fame) on his version of Riders On The Storm, released in 2018. Which has reached over 73,000 streams on Spotify.
Courtney is currently assisting in the start-up of The Dazey Hills Company, a new Hampshire based entertainments and talent agency. She is currently specialising in PR and development for the company’s musician sector. Simultaneously Courtney continues to work as performer vocalist with her band, alongside session work and composing original music.

Giulia Grispino – London College of Creative Media
Giulia started making music in 2016, soon after she bought her first guitar, while in her first year at university. The first project she led was called Sans Soucis Experience, with which she released the critically acclaimed “Daffodils EP”, with positive responses from Worldwide FM, EZH magazine, Mahogany and About To Blow, to launch her career as a London based artist. Between 2017 and 2018, Giulia headlined at renowned venues such as Union Chapel, RichMix and O’Meara as well as collaborating with Brainchild festival Hatch Nights, Sofarsounds and Sound Connections.
Among the most recent achievements with her solo project, Giulia also met the support of PRS Foundation’s WMM fund, with which she is going to release her debut EP “The Lover”.
Mental health and wellbeing has been the core centre of Giulias’ activism for the past two years, appearing on the theme on Worldwide FM with Christine Brown from Help Musicians and expanding her social work to other communities across the globe.Her latest project in Zambia, partially funded by the EU intergroup ARDI, supports a large number of street children, hosted by Koinonia community, providing a wide range of artistic activities, in order to implement their mental wellbeing over the pathway of social rehabilitation. This experience helped Giulia to access other local platforms such as the “Achieve Your Greatness” program by Abram Wilson foundation, as a music workshop leader working in primary school across London. Giulias’ biggest achievement to date was opening for Nabihah Iqbal at Bush Theatre at Baylon Festival and performing in December 2018 alongside the Brit-nominated R&B artist Mahalia.

Izzie Walsh – BIMM
Singer Songwriter Izzie Walsh and her band have been performing across the U.K. taking popular venues and turning them into Tennessee front porches. Beginning 2018 with sold out shows in Manchester and London the band successfully recorded and released their latest E.P. Take Me Back. Awarded Horizon Act of 2018 and Best Band of 2018 by the British Country Music Association. Izzie is always accompanied by a brilliant ensemble of traditional instruments such as banjo, mandolin and dobro creating a modern twist alongside double bass and drums. With previous festival appearances at Bluedot, Buckle & Boots and most recently the International Stage at Tamworth Country Music Festival audiences have been treated to their unique blend of Country and Bluegrass. Izzie and her band were also chosen to perform at Indie Week Festival in Toronto Canada after winning their UK showcase and being awarded ‘Best of The Fest’. Ending 2018 with a successful run of shows supporting Curse of Lono in Manchester, London, Glasgow and several other cities Izzie now has exciting plans for 2019, with a new single due for release in May.

Josh Cherrington – Leeds Beckett University
Josh began his career relatively early, through volunteering at local festivals after playing at them in an embarrassing indie band (his words, not ours). From volunteering pushing flight cases he got a foot in the door and a stage management role, which in turn led to hitting the road as a tour manager whilst applying for university courses.
Josh continued this throughout university with bigger clients each time and began to work as a promoter’s rep around the local area, taking on each and every opportunity that came his way, including corporate production management, tour management and event promotion. For his final degree project, Josh launched ‘Strikeback Festival’, a two-stage music event in Leeds featuring 14 local artists.
Upon graduating from Leeds Beckett University with first class honours in Music Production, Josh began a master’s degree in international Event Management, combining his love of music with the excitement of live events. Whilst studying for this, he began working in the third sector as an event coordinator, overseeing national touring and event production for an internationally renowned charity, before being offered a full-time position as an Events Manager for SMG Europe, operating out of York’s flagship concert and events venue, rated one of the top 20 music venues in the world (Pollstar, 2018).

Matthew Mainprize – University of Hertfordshire
Matthew studied Music Composition and Technology for Films and Games at the University of Hertfordshire, from which he graduated with a first-class honours. During his degree Matthew did a placement year where he worked at Rare Ltd., a Microsoft Games studio, as an audio intern on the recently released Sea of Thieves.
This was an amazing experience and it helped Matthew see where he wanted to take his career in the future, and since graduating he has been able to follow through with that; as he is now an Audio Designer at Frontier Developments!
Initially Matthew joined Frontier as Audio QA, working on Jurassic World: Evolution. He was in this role for around four months, after which point he was given the opportunity to apply for an audio design position. After passing the relevant tests he began working as an Audio Designer on Jurassic World, where he has been since the start of this year.
Being a life-long gamer he is proud to say that he has two credits on two AAA video games, less than a year since leaving university. He is happy with his work and feels that all the work he has done, to get to this point, has been worth it and the future is looking equally exciting!

Natasha Middlecote – Bucks New University
Natasha studied Music Technology and Live Production at college which lead to studying Music Management & Artist Development at Buckinghamshire New University. During her first year at university (2013) she interned at a Radio Plugging company which is where she assisted at her first ever Radio 1 Live Lounge with Bombay Bicycle club. During her second year she interned and then gained part time employment at FAE formerly known as Turn First as an office assistant and commuted to London 2-3 days a week whilst fitting this around her degree and part time work. In July 2015 whilst still in her second year of university Natasha then became a Personal Assistant to a British female popstar. Natasha travelled the world and carried out her Personal assistant role full time whilst continuing her degree studies into her 3rd and final year. The role as Personal Assistant allowed Natasha to work across the business worldwide, gain first-hand experience and knowledge in all aspects of touring, TV, Radio and the film industry. The majority of Natasha’s spare time (on a plane mainly) is where she would write her university essay’s and dissertation. During the final stages of her 3rd year she would fly in and out from filming in Canada to complete her university exams and dissertation hand in. 2018 and after 2.5 years as a PA, Natasha started a new job at Red Light Management. As of 2019 her role as day to day manager and assistant sees her working across artists such as; SIGMA, Lower Than Atlantis, The Cribs, Bury Tomorrow, Black Honey and new and upcoming artist Kid Brunswick, just to name a few.

Niall O’Connor – Leeds College of Music
Since graduating with a First-Class degree in Music Business from Leeds College of Music, Niall has been working within the music industries at PPLPRS LTD. His passion lies in event management, innovation and the arts. As a creative, he has used his entrepreneurial mind-set to launch his own app/website, Goobie, as a platform for emerging musicians and promoters to connect. Demonstrating his appreciation for the entertainment sector, Niall has also organised performances (both live and online) for undiscovered singer-songwriters around the UK as Rhino Session’s Director.

Oliver Shelton – London College of Creative Media
Olly graduated from LCCM in 2018 with a 1st class BMus in Music Production. Alongside university, he interned at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions in Santa Monica, gaining insight into the process of film music and wider studio-recording landscape. Afterwards, he became particularly active in the London session scene (as part of London Contemporary Voices), leading to appearances with artists such as Basement Jaxx, Keane, Kate Nash, The Invisible, Amber Run, Nitin Sawhney and Deaf Havana at iconic venues across London (with numerous TV and radio appearances) and festivals up and down the UK (including Glastonbury, Bestival and Wilderness). After graduating, Olly co-founded COSM studios, a music production/recording studio based in Tottenham’s Ten 87 complex, neighbouring the studios of Django Django and Foreign Beggars. Combining his technical knowledge, extensive research on the psychology of music (involving emotion and perception) and industry experience of being on ‘both sides of the glass’ with world class artists, COSM is set for a string of exciting releases in 2019 from forward thinking artists, pushing musical and aesthetic boundaries whilst being intrinsically aware of current and future trends.

Samantha Taylor – Leeds College of Music
In the final year of her degree, through professional recommendations, Samantha secured two separate Music public relations (PR) internships. She was involved in campaigns supporting new EP and Music Video Releases. As part of her internships, Samantha worked at events including, arranging and running a press evening for an EP launch at Tape London and press ticket allocation/entry at 2018’s Cornbury Festival. Following the conclusion of her internships, she remained involved in a few PR campaigns with the companies she had interned for. Through these opportunities, Samantha secured the Graduate Placement Role at London Based Entertainment PR company KPPR.
At KPPR Samantha provides day-to-day support for the Accounts Manager. One of her key responsibilities is to secure regional press for the live tours KPPR manage publicity for. For these tours, Samantha writes press releases, collates regional press contacts and sends pitches to regional media to secure print, online and radio interview coverage. She liaises directly with clients, promoters, venues and regional and national press. She has arranged a number of successful radio days and press schedules for these tours. The clients Samantha has worked with to promote their touring shows are Omid Djalili, Julian Clary, The Sooty Show, Ross Noble, and Jonathan Pie. She also recently worked on a project for Worthing Theatre’s 2018 Pantomime ‘Aladdin’ with Lee Latchford-Evans from STEPS. During this project, Samantha secured opportunities, including a national TV interview on ITV and attended those with the client to ensure things ran smoothly. Other publicity campaigns on KPPR’s roster Samantha has been working on include, a children’s book series for publishers Andersen Press and retained publicity for a film production company.