Emel Mathlouthi is a Tunisian-American singer-songwriter, composer, performer, and producer whose music often combines electronic, rock, and traditional Arabic influences with ethereal vocals. She is a politically and socially engaged artist who uses her platform to promote themes of justice, female empowerment and breaking down cultural boundaries. Emel rose to fame with her protest song "Kelmti Horra" ("My Word is Free"), which became an anthem for the Tunisian revolution and the Arab Spring. In 2008 she fled Tunis after her music was banned in Tunisia and she was prevented from performing in the country.

“I always believed that I have a mission–to expose injustice, and help people believe in themselves, feel their own power and have hope to build their own reality to make change.” Rolling Stone, MENA

With creative freedom in Paris, she pursued writing and perfecting her songs and recorded her first studio album, Kelmti Horra (My Word Is Free). Emel continued her exploration to develop a unique sound through her 2017 release of Ensen (Human); in 2019 Everywhere We Looked Was Burning and in 2020, The Tunis Diaries, that marked a moving reconciliation with her native country and her early influences.

In 2023, Emel wrapped production of a fifth album, MRA, a 100% woman made album, an ode to femininity and sorority carried by a close collaboration between women artists, musicians and producers from all over the world. MRA continues to tour around the world to critical acclaim.

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Amy Davidman is a partner, agent and co-founder of TBA based in the Bay Area. A veteran agent with more than 20 years’ experience, Davidman began her career at the legendary Bowery Ballroom and went on to work with esteemed David Lefkowitz Management before focusing on the live business working at High Road Touring, Windish and Paradigm.

“I love taking the artist’s voice and point of view and translating it into strategy, planning, and business,” she says, “for artists to reach their goals in the live touring space, they need all of it stitched together.” With this in mind, Davidman is also devoted to social justice issues, to reforms within the music business, and to the ways these priorities all enrich each other. Her co-founding TBA is also linked, as she explains, “ I co-founded TBA to create a culture around being heard, and to promote transparency and accountability, alongside our high level of service for artists.”

Davidman’s leadership extends well beyond TBA into education, mentorship, social justice, industry issues, and myriad panel discussions and appearances.

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Josh Kohn is the Associate Director of the independent nonprofit Center for Cultural Vibrancy (CCV). CCV champions traditional arts while fostering cultural exchange and education around the world. In just a few short years, CCV has made a real impact at home and abroad, experimenting with new ideas, building deep relationships, and supporting traditional artists in direct and meaningful ways. When the spirit moves him, he also produces concerts throughout the Baltimore region.

Before joining CCV, Josh was the Performance Director at Creative Alliance in Baltimore, producing nearly 1,000 events during his 8-years with the organization. Earlier in his career, Josh served at Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation supporting jazz and traditional arts and spent more than a decade with the National Council for the Traditional Arts, programming festivals and managing tours for some of the country’s top tradition-bearers. He has also led cultural exchange tours in China with the public radio program American Routes, contributed to A Guide to The Crooked Road: Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail, and produced more than a dozen albums and radio programs.

Josh is a former DeVos Institute Fellow at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and a current Bloomberg Tech Fellow in the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Digital Accelerator Program for Arts and Culture. He lives in Baltimore, where he regularly holds family dance parties with his wife, Marianne, and their daughters, Golda and Lena.

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John Schaefer has hosted and produced WNYC’s New Sounds since 1982 (“The #1 radio show for the Global Village” – Billboard), and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986. He has written extensively about music, including the book New Sounds: A Listener’s Guide to New Music (Harper & Row, NY, 1987; Virgin Books, London, 1990); the Cambridge Companion to Singing: World Music (Cambridge University Press, U.K., 2000); and the TV program Bravo Profile: Bobby McFerrin (Bravo Television, 2003). His liner notes appear on more than 100 recordings, ranging from the 1996 NAIRD winner The Music of Armenia to recordings by Yo-Yo Ma, Terry Riley, and many others.

He has curated the new music and silent film series at Brookfield Place; chaired the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Music; and hosted lectures and panels for Lincoln Center, BAM, and The World Science Festival, among others.  

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