This event is sponsored by Finessed Media, Inc. and hosted by Miya Asobo.
Have you ever wondered who’s behind all the magic in the music industry? You know — the music video directors, the choreographers, the stylists and all of the other creatives who bring the artist’s vision to life?
Well, look no further! This weekend, we will be sitting down with seven different visionaries in a panel discussion about who’s really running things in the industry! We’ll learn about vfx, production design, styling, directing, choreographing and the journeys that these creatives took to get to where they are now.
We will be joined by:
Aisha Rae - Creative Director, Founder of BL8K (creative agency)
Brian Drake - Choreographer, Movement Coach, Stage Director
Nayeli Maldonado - Multidisciplinary artist, Production Designer, Co-Owner of Nohpalli (creative studio)
Roxana Baldovin - Film Director, Executive Producer Writer
Tomash Kuzmytskyi - Digital Creator, Founder of The Kroot VFX
Elise Solberg - Musician, Non-Profit Executive Director, Turn Up Her Mic
Tiffany Stevenson - Background Vocalist
Agenda:
12 - 12:10pm EST Introductions
12:10 - 12:45pm EST Discussion with Speakers
12:45pm - 1:30pm EST Breakout Room Q&A Session
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Aisha Rae started her career in New York City and is now living in Los Angeles as a bi-coastal stylist extends her services in television, commercial, celebrity, and editorial. She has been featured and noticed by multiple outlets including Vogue, Spring Place, and Revolt Live for her style expertise. Aisha work has also been published in Elle, Paper, L’officiel and many more. Aisha not only considers herself a fashion stylist but more of a style consultant building the artist image and brand by finding partnerships with different fashion companies.
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Nayeli Maldonado is a multidisciplinary artist and an arts advocate based in Los Angeles. After she graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara as a Latinx Studies major, Nayeli worked at NBCUniversal and the Latino Film Institute. However, she switched over to full-time freelancing during the pandemic where she now set designs for music videos, shorts and commercial work.
As a woman of color and first generation Mexican-American, she aims to uplift the stories and talents of her community. She now holds a Master's degree in Music Business, co-owns a creative studio called Nohpalli, and loves making time to play with her pups, Frida and Canela!
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Elise Solberg is a pianist, songwriter, producer and composer based in Los Angeles, CA. She is an experienced and versatile performer in multiple styles of music, including pop, R&B, rock, classical, and jazz. Elise has performed with 5x GRAMMY nominated artist Chloe x Halle at the MTV Movie & TV Awards, NPR's Tiny Desk concert, James Corden's Late Late Show, Pepsi's Unmute Your Voice Concert, Spotify's Grammy Party for Best New Artist Nominees, the Verizon Up Concert at the Wiltern and more. She has made appearances as a pianist on major network TV shows such as The Kids Are Alright on ABC and The Unicorn on CBS. She has performed as a piano concerto soloist with orchestras such as the Breckenridge Festival Orchestra.
Her strong passion for many styles of music was noticed by mentor Patrice Rushen, whom Elise studied with at Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Joining the critically acclaimed Popular Music program, Elise received the best education for performance, writing, arranging, production, and musical direction she could ever ask for. In March of 2018, Elise received the Finalist prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest for her original song, "Home." In 2020, she became a prize-winner of Shed House Live's "Hope Is Contagious Contest," for her original song, "Mama Said." Later that year, Elise performed for the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project.
She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Turn Up Her Mic, a non-profit organization empowering and educating female musicians. Elise graduated from USC summa cum laude in May of 2018.
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Roxana Baldovin is an in-demand director who has garnered close to a billion views on her videos for stars such as Maluma, Steve Aoki, Saweetie, Wiz Khalifa, Doja Cat, Rico Nasty, HER, Kehlani, Lil Uzi Vert, Gunna, and Lupe Fiasco, to name a few. Her colorful palette and creative vision have been critically acclaimed, and her video “Tia Tamera” was named the top 20 videos of 2019 by Pitchfork. Her videos have been played countless times on BET, MTV, and vh1.
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Tomash Kuzmytskyi is a 2 time MTV VMA best visual effects award winner who also specializes in CGI! He has worked on visual effects for Ski Mask The Slump God, Tinashe, Sofia Carson, and once again the list goes on. He is also the founding CEO of The Kroot, which is a visual effects and animation studio based in Irvine CA with another office based in the Ukraine!
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