WOMEX Announces 2015 Showcase Jury

 

World music expo WOMEX has announced the names of the five judges that will select the artists for the 2015 showcases.

The five showcase Samurai for 2015 are (in alphabetical order): Olivier Delsalle (France), Festival d’Ile de France; Marta Dobosz (Poland), Cross Culture Festival; Andras Lelkes (Hungary), Hangveto; Jerome Williams (The Netherlands), Earth Beat; and Minna Zhou (USA), radio producer/DJ.

Olivier Delsalle (France)

Olivier Delsalle is the artistic and general director of the Festival d’Ile de France. The Festival presents about thirty concerts in the heritage sites of the Paris region and programs many ground-breaking and commissioned works, building connections between a large range of musical repertoires.

Olivier is a board member of Zone Franche and France Festivals.

Marta Dobosz

Marta works as a program director of Cross Culture Festival in Warsaw. With Adam Mickiewicz Institute she has co-created the “Sound like Poland” program promoting Polish emerging artists abroad.

Marta closely works with the Polish Radio. She labored as promotion manager for Harmonia Mundi/World Village label for the Polish market.

Marta was a culture and development expert for the Central African region in the Embassy of Poland in Angola. She lives between Warsaw and Lisbon.

András Lelkes
András is a folk musician, record producer, promoter, and daily radio program editor at the Bartók National 3 channel. He’s the co-founder of Hangvető, a world music agency from Hungary.

András is the hosting organizer of the first ever Eastern European WOMEX, held in Budapest in 2015.

Jerome Williams

Jerome founded Earth Beat with two partners in 2002 after touring the world as sound engineer and tour manager since he was 18. He started focusing on Asia in 2005 after meeting Liu Fang’s manager at WOMEX, and has promoted artists from Asia ever since.

He’s involved in the management of Earth Beat and is the international agent for a number of artists such as Hanggai, Jambinai and Depedro.

Minna Zhou

Minna is a Minneapolis-based radio producer, DJ and writer. Her work has been featured in MTV Iggy, Pitchfork, Africa is a Country, Afropop Worldwide, and other publications. She produces reports for public radio and DJs for Twin Cities station KFAI.

As a researcher and journalist, Minna has developed fieldwork as a Fulbright Fellow to Senegal and interned with American RadioWorks, the audio documentary unit of American Public Media. Her work focuses on urban diasporic subcultures and subcultures of music, along with social change.

WOMEX 2015 takes place in Budapest, Hungary, October 21 – 25, 2015.