Event Recap – Dubspot Inspiring Women – June 26

On June 26, Dubspot’s Inspiring Women in Music Technology group held its third event at Cielo NYC. Called The Producers Edition, this event was a showcase of works by female music producers residing in the New York City metropolitan area. Prior to the event a number of women submitted original tracks to the Inspiring Women team to be considered to play their work on Cielo’s acclaimed Funktion-One soundsystem. The event also offered a chance for presenters to get on-the-spot feedback from a panel of experts that included: Laura Escudé aka Aluxe, Dani Diciaccio, Michele Darling and me (Ebonie Smith).

The Facebook event page listed 106 RSVPs and 8 wall comments. There were approximately 80 people in attendance at Cielo during the event. 5 women were selected to present their work: DJ Winter, Satya Hinduja, Peace Omega, Chaisley Prussier and Rebecca Yuri Feynberg. Each woman played one track for the audience and panel. They were each allowed to share details about their production process and background on the tracks.

Between producer presentations, Laura Escudé performed an amazing 20-minute set of her new work, a blend of hip hop and electronic influenced instrumental music. She used a number of customized controllers to play her set, which was entirely programmed in Ableton Live. After her performance, she gave a brief talk about each of her controllers and the production techniques she used to make her sounds. She also relayed a few anecdotes about why she began producing music. She recalled one account of a friend who once told her that she would never learn how to use production software because the learning curve was too steep. After the challenge, she committed herself to mastering Ableton Live and getting better at producing tracks.

All the women who presented tracks really impressed the crowd and took a huge step toward exposing their music to a larger, more diverse audience. The Inspiring Women team plans to continue with similar events to help further showcase the talented women who endorse the group and Dubspot.