ALICE SAMOILOVA Alice Samoilova is a producer at Young Musik i Syd and is the project manager for the Musik Direkt music competition in the counties of Skåne and Kronoberg. She works actively to ensure that children and young people of different ages can experience live music. One of the major projects she runs is The Great Concert Party, at which children from the age of about 4 can experience the Musica Vitae chamber orchestra in a fun and inspiring way. The prestigious Musik Direkt music competition started in 1984 and focuses on young musicians aged between 13 and 21. The competition is open to all styles of music and undergoes continuous development in order to reflect the young people’s music creations. Participants are given the opportunity to gain professional performing experience, take part in workshops and meet each other. The competition has strong international ties through Imagine and Jeunesses Musicales International.
LINA THOMSGÅRD During her nearly 16 years in the public relations and media industry and with a background in the music industry stretching back almost two decades, Lina Thomsgård has worked for many years to promote equality and diversity in a number of different ways. She does this primarily through concrete initiatives in social media, and five years ago she also started the Rättviseförmedlingen (Fair Recruitment) organisation. The media climate has certainly changed in Sweden these days as a result of her efforts. She has also run campaigns that promote women in films (#Amärkt – Approved Bechdel Test), which have been praised and talked about around the world. Lina’s method of working is to spread knowledge in a way that encourages people to listen, and which helps people join together to bring about change. Lina is currently running Skapelsen (The Creation), a project that promotes diversity and equality in the music industry, on behalf of SKAP (The Swedish Society of Songwriters, Composers & Authors).
SCOTT D. STONER Scott has devoted his professional life to integrating the arts in education, in health care, and in the community. At APAP and with his previous positions as Vice-President for Education at VSA, and Director of National Education Programs at The Kennedy Center, he focuses on professional development and leadership training - designing and implementing innovative programs for inclusive lifelong teaching, learning and engagement in, about and through the arts. He is responsible for the APAP|NYC conference program in addition to other professional development and leadership initiatives, the organization’s grants programs (including the Creative Campus Innovations and Building Bridges: Campus Community Engagement grants programs funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation), the Leadership Fellows Program, and international networking. He is also responsible for coordinating APAP’s development and resource strategies.
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ISABEL THOMSON Isabel Thomson is the International coordinator at Musikverket – Swedish Performing Arts Agency, an organization where a music project funding body, a vast music and theatre library, The Electronic Music Studio, a record label, the Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research and the Museum of Performing Arts all work together under the same roof. After graduating from the Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg with a degree in history, she has occupied a series of positions, all music-related. Prior to her present work with funding, she was the international coordinator at EMS – the Electronic Music Studio in Stockholm that was started in the 1960s, assisting the artistic director and composer Mats Lindström in the development of the artist in residence programme.