The next free webinar from Canadian Musician and NWC will be held on Thursday, Nov. 24 at 2 pm EST and will cover the accomplishments of women in the music industry, past and current challenges, opportunities for women, and the future of women in the music industry.

Our host is Robyn Stewart, Executive Director of  Women in Music Canada. Robyn will be joined industry experts Ebonnie Rowe from Honeyjam, Liana White from the Canadian Federation of Musicians and Juno-winning producer/artist Hill Kourkoutis.

This will be an amazing learning, career-building and networking opportunity!

Of course, there will be time for audience questions.

For more information and to register, go to www.nwcwebinars.com/powerofwomen

Robyn Stewart is an 20-year music industry veteran, accomplished organization and event director, currently the Executive Director of Women in Music Canada. Her experience reaches all areas of event management and talent buying, with her strongest skills lying in financial management, complex logistics, government relations and fund development and partner relationship building. With strong financial acumen, Robyn has managed project budgets up to $3,000,000, meeting and exceeding expectations. Among the projects she is most proud of; Executive Director of Western Canadian music Alliance, Celebration Sites Manager; Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games 2010, Entertainment Buyer; PanAmerican Games 2015, and her current roles above, which allows her to support developing artists and engage in passion projects including working towards gender parity in the music industry on an international level. As a board member and one of two official festival partners with KeyChange, gender balance initiative in Canada, Robyn a key contributor to projects forwarding the advancement of underrepresented genders in music and of is an extreme supporter of the music industry and emerging talent in Canada and brings this passion to every project.

Ebonnie Rowe is the founder and Executive Director of PhemPhat Entertainment Group, producers of the Honey Jam Artist Development Programme for young female artists of all cultures and musical genres.  Starting in 1995, they provide, promotional, mentoring, networking, educational and performance opportunities.  Their most well known alums include Grammy Award winners Nelly Furtado and Melanie Fiona, along with Juno winners Jully Black and Haviah Mighty.  She has received the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award, the Roy Thompson Award of Merit and CIMA's Trailblazer Award in recognition of her work.

Liana White is the Executive Director of the Canadian National Office of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (CFM).  In addition to her position with the CFM, Liana also sits on the Board of Women and Music Canada, and is a member of both the Women’s, and the Workers of Colour Caucuses of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). In these roles, Liana has been serving the interests of professional musicians and labour for well-over 25 years.

In her capacity as CFM Executive Director, Liana is involved in every aspect of the unions operations, some of which includes, lobbying for copyright reform, negotiating agreements benefitting musicians, and mentoring musicians in all aspects of their career.

Through her work with the CLC, Liana has served as an advocate of general labour interests for all Canadians for over 10 years, lobbying in support of national pharmacare and affordable childcare; with a concentrated focus on women’s rights on the global scale, having served as a Delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas.  On the heels of the “Me Too” Movement, Liana was instrumental to the formation of a committee responsible for spearheading industry-wide discussions on a Code of Conduct which was adopted by many entities in the recorded and live music sector.

Hill Kourkoutis, a revered Canadian music contributor, is an accomplished producer, songwriter, composer, mixer, recording engineer, multi-instrumentalist, and artist. In May of 2022, Hill made Canadian music history when she became the first woman to be nominated for and win a JUNO Award for Recording Engineer of the Year in the 46 years since that category was created.

Spanning her career, Hill has produced, mixed and/or written albums and singles for many significant artists: Aysanabee’s 2022 release, Watin, Digging Roots’ 2022 album release, ZHAWENIM, Leela Gilday’s JUNO award-winning album North Star Calling, Digging Roots’ “SKODEN” (Top 30 Alternative Radio), Royal Wood, Cassie Dasilva’s viral TikTok smash “Unsolicited Contact” (over 1mm views), SATE’s JUNO nominated-album The Fool (2022 Polaris Prize nominee), Jules’ “Before You Picked Her” (#1 CBC, Top 40 Alternative Radio), Meghan Patrick, POESY, Amanda Rheaume’s The Spaces In Between (#1 Album on the earshot! National Folk/Roots/Blues Chart), and Tania Joy’s 2021 release I Will Stand.

Additionally, along with Serena Ryder, Hill co-wrote and produced the theme song and the end title song for Universal Kids’ animated children’s series Remy and Boo, which was one of the overall Top Three preschool series premieres of 2020. Hill also produced and co-wrote the theme song for Disney’s series Dino Ranch, the #1 rated preschool series in the United States. Most recently, Hill co-wrote and produced episodic songs for Thomas & Friends, including the song “A Partner on the Rails.”

She continues to write music for children’s television shows. As a musician, Kourkoutis has had the honour of playing with artists such as The Weeknd, Serena Ryder, Martha and the Muffins and Tara Slone. Hill also performed as guitarist onstage in the house band for the CTV series, The Launch. When taking a respite from studio duties, Hill enjoys sharing stories of her life’s experiences in music, as well as mentoring and teaching audio production for a variety of different music schools, organizations, universities, and music festivals.

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