Music Ambassador Delegation WOMEX 2024

As part of the Music Ambassador Program, we support individual players and small and medium-sized enterprises in establishing contacts in the international music business.

As BMC, we organize a small delegation to WOMEX 2024, which takes place from 23 to 27 October in Manchester, UK. Every year in October, more than 2,600 professionals from 90 countries come together and make the event one of the leading networking platforms for the global music industry.

The jury consisted of Anna Groß, Lucas Knoflach and Evyonne Muhuri.

These are the names of the BMC Womex delegation 2024:

Sera Kalo (Artist, Cultural Producer)
Sera Kalo is a genre-fluid, Berlin-based Caribbean-American singer & songwriter who recently
released her audiovisual ep, Serendipity in April 2023 as well as her album in June 2023. She has toured at festivals and music venues throughout Germany with her soul-jazz project, eXante and has now sent shockwaves through the national music scene to international waters with her newest project eX.II an experimental jazz poetry project landing their first live performance requests at XJAZZ Festival (as opener for Shabaka Hutchings), Casa de Musica in Portugal along with perspective dates in Spain and England. In 2024 she won the Female Producer Prize from Sony Music and Music Women Germany. Sera is also the co-founder of Diasporic Arts Alliance, a start up specializing in the curation and production of hybrid and virtual live concerts. Sera has produced events, retreats, theater plays, music empowerment workshops for QBWOC, children and young people. She is an advocate for equal and equitable diverse representation in the Berlin music industry and has participated in juries as well as mentorship programs in the fields of music and theater. Sera Kalo aims for sustainable cultural empowerment and advancement for marginalized communities who live within oppressive systems through interdisciplinary approaches involving music, performing arts and creative tech.

David Tinning (Santuri Culture)
Santuri East Africa is a community-focussed music innovation hub based in Nairobi, Kenya, and with a newly formed sub-company in Berlin. We exist to bring about a more equitable, authentic and
diverse music industry.  We specialise in providing progressive, globally-focussed music education for producers and DJs. We connect artists to knowledge, recording facilities, and cultural dialogues. We create opportunities for sonic artists through showcase events, residencies and collaborations. We provide an environment that lives our commitment to Diversity, Equality and Inclusion. We build partnerships globally to support artists and creatives. We host an annual music tech and innovation summit.

Tania Takoh (T’neeya)
Born Tania Takoh, T’neeya is an Afro-R&B artist born and raised in Cameroon until she moved to Berlin in her late teens. Her latest project ‘In Her Thoughts’ reflects her style – fusing her different
influences from childhood (Her father’s love for the guitar, jazz and Makossa rhythms and mum’s gospel preference) with the R&B she gravitated to as a young adult.
She has been nominated for an Afrima award and has been on numerous top BBC playlists. She has also performed on stages like Berlin’s African Food festival and Afrobeat festival, Afrochella (now Afrofuture). She hopes her art inspires and bridges the cultures that she represents.

Johannes Dam (buero doering)
Buero doering – Fachhandel für Ereignisse is an event and communication agency that, in addition to classic event management, also organizes various intercultural and international projects
(Babylon Europa, Sống ở Berlin) and events in public spaces – mostly with a focus on music (Fête de la Musique, Kultursommerfestival). We design and curate events that bring together and move people from different cultures and realities through shared experiences. In addition to my work at buero doering, I have worked as a freelancer at the interface of cultural exchange, urban development and music management, for the Goethe-Institut and the Eutopia Multihalle project, among others.

Lorena Junghans (KINDA)
Lorena Junghans is an award-winning artist manager, FES scholarship recipient, graduated with honors from Filmuniversity Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, alumni fellow of CIRCE (Creative Impact Research Centre Europe), the “Empower Now” incubator of Impact Hub and won the 2022 Bertha Foundation „Artivist Award” for their collaboration with Palestinian musician Rasha Nahas. As the Founder of KINDA they were granted the STARTBÜRO – scholarship. KINDA is a company that merges the elements of artists’ service with impact production, nurturing diverse pioneers, driving systematic change and fueling the creation of art , while intertwining commercial success with the long-term growth of creators and their community.

Luanny Tiago da Conceição (Berlin Music Commission
Luanny is co-managing director of the Berlin Music Commission. As COO she takes care of the daily business and supports Tim with the Music Ambassador programme. Previously, she worked at
Piranha Records & Publishing and at various festivals. She is passionate about the music industry and is committed to building bridges and strengthening cohesion within the cultural sector.

Melissa Kolukisagil (İÇ İÇE Festival)
İÇ İÇE, which means „intertwined” or „interwoven” in Turkish, is the first and only diversely positioned festival for new Anatolian music in Germany. İÇ İÇE is more than just a cultural event for us: it is a place of gathering and respectful exchange with each other through various formats and
collaborations – in several cities. İÇ İÇE also performs outside of Berlin to reach people all over
Germany, such as in Hamburg or Munich.

Miguel Buenrostro (Cosmoaudiciones)
I work as curator, music programer and filmmaker, In order to create musical encounters and
improvisation scenarios, between Berlin musicians and musicians from the global south.

Nane Kahle (Urban Trout Records, Sonic Interventions)
Urban Trout Records: A forward-thinking independent label formed in 2022, that champions a diverse range of artists. Its roster includes Aron Ottignon (Blue Note, Stromae) and Aron and the Jeri Jeri Band (Baaba Maal) with their last album “Dama Bëgga Ñibi” released in January 2024. Led by a dedicated team, the label’s mission is to break new ground in the music industry by fostering originality and supporting creative exploration across genres.
Sonic Interventions emerged in 2020 from weekly Open-Air sessions. Since then, the transdisciplinary, diaspora-futuristic band has established itself as one of Berlin’s most acclaimed underground Jazz collectives. Known for inclusive live spectacles, in which moments of meditation and trance rise into heavy grooves, the band merges poetry and dance inspired by the cosmos and the ancestors. Their Debut Album Do You Remember? is coming out in November 2024.
Nane Kahle: A singer and producer making music with loops, sonic design, organic textures, afro futurism. Improvisational singer whose music reflects deep personal insight and emotional range. With a distinctive voice that draws listeners in, Kahle’s songs convey a sincerity and depth that leave a lasting impression.

Natasha Padabed (More Zvukov Agency)
Natasha is an agent, festival programmer and music curator who currently lives in Berlin. Shortly after she moved to the Netherlands in 2000, she launched More Zvukov Agency, booking mostly Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian artists in all Europe and overseas.
Now, her roster includes mostly artists from the Eastern Europe but not only. At WOMEX‘24 More Zvukov Agency presents Pankisi Ensemble from Georgia.

Talía Vega León (Radical Sounds Latin America)
Founded in 2019, RSLA is an online platform and annual music festival based in Berlin. It showcases innovative talent from LATAM and its diasporas working in sound, performance, and theory.
We showcase artistic proposals that go beyond the confines of the Eurocentric mainstream, that is, interested in experimentalism and new perspectives on sound, in listening to emerging and marginalized communities; and in the academic realm, in the politics of listening from the Global South.  RSLA has become a meeting point for our community, an engaging space for Latin-American migrants and a larger audience interested in experimenting and experiencing new sounds.

Tim Joppien (Berlin Music Commission)
Tim is overseeing the showcase festival MW:M Live (Most Wanted: Music) and is responsible for the Music Ambassador program, to facilitate international exchange. He previously worked in the area of booking & management and has been involved in the organisation of various festivals on a voluntary basis for several years. Recently he started to organise Minibooth, a project on electronic music-education for kids. Tim is happy to facilitate new encounters and is eager to work towards a more connected music industry.

Jackie Malavida (Malavida Music)

With our delegation, we want to lay the foundations for better networking between the Berlin music industry and WOMEX and the “Global Sounds” industry segment. We want to build a bridge to our Berlin networks in order to create more space and representation for this music and industry segment in the city in the future. We are paying particular attention to expertise in the areas of sustainability, promoting young talent and transforming the music industry.