Music Industry Advisory Board
Our Music Industry Advisory Board, established under the leadership of Visiting Instructor (Music Industry) Heather McDonald in Fall 2019, consists of professionals working in different capacities in the business across the globe. They are committed to providing guidance and mentorship to our Music Industry Concentration students and program.
LEAH BEKELE is the Field National Director of Promotion and Lifestyle for Epic Records. Previously at Epic, she served as the National Director of Promotion and Lifestyle and as the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic Regional Promotions Manager. Before joining Epic Records, she planned special events for Atlantic Records, Def Jam, Interscope, Warner Music Group, and Lawless ENT and worked as the Operations Director and Events Coordinator of One Off Entertainment in Chicago.
SHANNON HERBER is a music industry executive with twenty years of experience currently serving as the Pop & Dance/ Electronic genre manager for the GRAMMY Awards. Previously, she held positions including Manager, Publicity & Artist Relations at Universal Music Enterprises; Day-to-Day Manager for Carrie Underwood at 19 Entertainment; and Director of Operations/Tour Manager for Moby. In her spare time, she loves seeing live music, snorkeling, and collecting passport stamps through as many international adventures as possible
FRED JASPER is a music industry veteran with over 25 years experience. Initially starting out as a record store manager, he quickly transitioned to a record label executive. Fred has produced compilation albums ranging from legendary Texas singer/songwriter Guy Clark’s Sugar Hill Records era to an anthology of independent record label Disco to an overview of the late ‘50s and ‘60s small group Black Gospel. He has been nominated for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Best Liner Notes In a Recorded Project for his essay in The Definitive Doc Watson. Fred's passion and expertise since 2005 have focused on licensing master recordings + music copyrights to film/television/ad/commercials/video games/etc. Throughout his licensing career Fred has represented repertoire from labels such as Vanguard, Ranwood, Hightone, Testament and Vee Jay Records. His current position is Head of Licensing at Yep Roc Records. A recent highlight of his work was helping place Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s “I’m Gonna Getcha Back” in the promo for the upcoming Netflix film, The Laundromat. One of Fred's most cherished overall career highlights was when he was introduced to Dolly Parton by producer Steve Buckingham as “the guy who helped pick songs for [Dolly's Grammy-winning Bluegrass album] The Grass Is Blue.” When he’s not at work, his hobbies include music, music, and more music.
JOHN KENNEY was born and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. After college, he spent a few years living in Greece and Australia before coming home to tour in a rock ‘n’ roll band full time in 1999. After seven years on the road, he did a brief two-year stint in New York City before settling in Charleston in 2008. He saw immediately that the original live music scene in Charleston wasn’t anywhere near as big or diverse as it deserved to be, so he opened The Royal American in 2011 with his business partner, Karalee Fallert, in hopes of creating a solid neighborhood bar and concert venue, and a gathering place for original musicians downtown. As of January 2020, The Royal American has hosted 2000+ original shows and 4000+ original bands.
DOUGLAS MACINTYRE is Assistant Principal at Riverside Music College in Glasgow, Scotland. He has also lectured in Creative at Stow College and Kelvin College in Glasgow, and was involved in directing Stow’s student-run record label, Electric Honey, best known for releasing the debut album by Belle and Sebastian (Tigermilk), and is currently Associate Lecturer at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). Douglas also coordinates Riverside Music College’s student-run label Little Tiger, who are releasing music by innovative new artists on the Glasgow indie scene. In 1994 MacIntyre established leading Scottish independent label and music rights company, the Creeping Bent Organisation, who have released music by leading musicians from post-punk period groups (Fire Engines, Orange Juice, The Pop Group, Suicide, Subway Sect), to the modern era with releases by The Nectarine No, The Secret Goldfish, Port Sulphur, Adventures in Stereo, The Sexual Objects). Douglas’ manuscript, Nature Punk, is currently shortlisted for the Nan Shepherd Prize for nature writing.
JIM MCCULLOCH holds an MA in Music (Songwriting) with Distinction from the University of the West of Scotland and a BA in Commercial Music with Distinction from the University of the West of Scotland. He is a two-time winner of the University of the West of Scotland Songwriter of the Year award. Jim is the Principal Teacher Songwriting Module at Glasgow University Short Courses and Principal guitarist in The Soup Dragons/ The Bmx Bandits/Snowgoose/Green Peppers/ and Superstar. He has sold over 1 million albums in this capacity whilst signed to Mercury/Universal Records and other labels both major and indie. He is also Isobel Campbell’s (formerly of Belle and Sebastian) Principal guitarist/co-writer and has played guitar on and written material for her 3 acclaimed solo albums with American singer Mark Lanegan. Jim has toured nationally and internationally to promote over 25 albums of recorded music over a 30 year period and is a published songwriter with Reverb Music.
NATHAN MICHEL is a composer and producer working in a range of musical styles including classical, rock, experimental and noise. His band, Hospitality, has released two full-length albums on Merge Records and toured worldwide. Rolling Stone named their debut album a top record of 2012. Nathan has also released four solo recordings of experimental electro-acoustic pop music on the labels Sonig, Tigerbeat6, Skipp and Tomlab. Pitchfork called his music "daring, but highly listenable." A classically trained composer, Nathan received a Ph.D. in composition from Princeton and also studied at the Yale School of Music, The Royal Conservatory in The Netherlands (with Louis Andriessen) and Bowdoin College. He has received numerous awards for his work, including a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, several ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards, and a Naumburg Fellowship from Princeton. He was a featured composer for the 2014 Ecstatic Music festival and has also written pieces for the Now Ensemble, the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, The Boston Modern Orchestra Project and many others. His score for Lana Wilson’s film The Departure recently was described as “haunting” by the New York Times. He lives in Charleston, SC, with his wife and two children.
ALUMNI COUNCIL
JOHN SHIELDS has been making a career as a musician since he graduated from the College of Charleston in 2012 with a BA in Arts Management. Currently he tours fulltime in the indie hip-hop duo Little Stranger based out of Charleston, SC. When he’s not touring, Shields is active in the studio, heading the production for the group’s studio work. He has stayed actively involved with the Arts Management Program since his graduation, helping launch “Hip-Hop in the Den,” a monthly local hip-hop showcase presented by 1770 Records.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor, MI, BONNY WOLFE relocated to South Carolina when she was 16. She moved to Charleston to attend the College of Charleston. She interned at the Music Farm and then interned and worked as an Artist Runner at the Charleston Music Hall throughout her senior year of college. She began her full time position of Box Office Manager/Marketing Director after graduating in 2015. As the Music Hall grew, her position evolved into strictly Marketing Director.
CALEB COKER graduated from high school in Charlotte, NC, in 2010. He enrolled at the College of Charleston directly after high school and majored in Arts Management with a concentration in the Music Industry. Throughout college, Caleb interned for Rob Lamble at Ear for Music, Doc McGee at McGee Entertainment, and Vince Iwinski at Umphrey’s McGee. Directly after graduation, Caleb accepted a position at the Creative Artist Agency (CAA) as support staff in Nashville, TN. Following this experience, he accepted a job as a booking agent for The Empire Agency in Los Angeles, CA. Over time, Caleb and his colleague opened a satellite office for The Empire Agency in Charleston, SC. In May 2019, he and his business partner left to start Atlas Touring, a talent agency based in Charleston, SC.