EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Executive Director (acting)  and Chair - Founding Director

Anna Laverty is a music producer, sound engineer, mixer and songwriter. 

Anna is from England but migrated as a child to Perth, WA. After studying Sound at WAAPA she relocated to London to work in recording studios under high profile producers and engineers.

She returned to Melbourne, Australia  in 2009 and has built an exceptional showreel of credits. 

She received the Australia Council for the Arts Music Fellowship for 2021/22 and is the current recipient of the Prelude Composers Residency. 

Anna is the founder of the Music Producer and Engineers' Guild of Australia and is passionate about building community and ensuring that producers and engineers are represented within the wider music and arts industries.

Founding Director 

Tom Larkin has been a career musician for the past 30 years, as the founding member of the NZ rock band Shihad.

Having established a base in Melbourne since 2003, Tom is also the director of VVV MGMT responsible for overseeing the careers of Kingswood, Devin Abrams, The VANNS, Eliza & The Delusionals, Woodlock, and Villainy.

Tom has carved out a niche as an artist developer with his work as a producer and owner of HOMESURGERY RECORDINGS, a studio based in the suburb of Brunswick, and in 2018 was appointed as Conference Programmer for BIGSOUND.

Treasurer and Director 

Xylo Aria is an artist, producer and entrepreneur. She has been creating music since the age of 12 which interweaves contemporary sounds with her indian roots, while juggling other interests which align with her enterprising spirit. Xylo (AKA Shweta Krishnamurthy) began her career as an accounting professional at Ernst & Young, one of world's 4 biggest professional services firms, where she qualified as a Chartered Accountant. With a keen interest in business and minority empowerment, she left her accounting career and founded the music school, Music Production for Women (MPW) with the aim of empowering more women and other gender minorities in the music tech space. MPW has since served over 6,000 students from over 120 countries and been nominated as a finalist in the 2022 Australia Business Excellence Awards while also earning Xylo a place in the 2020 Top 100 She Said So Alt Power list of 2020 and a Top 50 East London Innovator Award. In business, Xylo specialises in business optimization, digital automations, community building and lead generation. She has a strong focus on continually updating and improving her skills in these areas to not only support her business but to provide specialist consultations to other music business owners also.

Director 

Annika Schmarsel (pka Alice Ivy) is a highly-collaborative songwriter, multi-intrumentalist, engineer, producer and artist from Naarm/Melbourne. Since launching her Alice Ivy project in 2015 Schmarsel has released two studio albums, performed more than 300 shows in four continents and amassed more than 60 million streams. When she's not focussed on her own music Schmarsel lends her songwriting and production skills to a variety of domestic and international artists, primarily from her studio in Northcote, Victoria. In 2020 Schmarsel signed an international publishing deal with Concord Music in London. 

Awards 

2022 Australian Women In Music Awards - Winner 'Studio Production Award'
2022 Australian Women In Music Awards - Nominated 'Diversity In Music Award'
2022 AIR Awards - Nominated 'Best Dance, Electronica or Club Single'
2021 Music Victoria Awards - Nominated 'Best Producer', 'Best Solo Artist', 'Best Pop', 'Best Album' 2020 ARIA Awards - Nominated 'Best Dance Release', 'Engineer Of The Year'
2020 J Awards - Nominated 'Australian Album Of The Year' 

2020 Australian Music Prize - Shortlisted 

Teaching, Speaking & Writing Engagements 

APRA Songmakers (2020 - 2022)
Mushroom's First Nations Pathway Program (2022)
APRA AMCOS - SongCraft Music Production (2021)
The Push - Electronic Music Accelerator Program (2021) Musicians Making A Difference (MMAD) - (2020 & 2022) Pathwaves @ RBMA Berlin (2019)
Ableton Live University Tour (2018)
Ricochet Songs (2018 & 2020)
TedxYouth Sydney (2017)
Red Bull Music Academy - In Conversation With Alice Ivy (2017) GameChangers - Women In Electronic Music Program at Uni Tas (2017) Operator @ Arts Centre Melbourne (2016 - 2018)

Director 

Eric J Dubowsky is a Grammy, Emmy, ARIA and APRA award winning producer, engineer, songwriter and mixer. He got his start at Greene St. recording in New York City, the home of early hip-hop artists Run DMC, and Public Enemy. It was here Eric assisted engineer/producer, Rod Hui. That led to a job working with legendary Atlantic Records producerArif Mardin in 1998.

Eric has worked with artists and producers  such as Flume, Weezer, ODESZA, Twenty One Pilots, Chet Faker, Brandy, Jeff Bhasker, Rick Rubin, Steve Lillywhite, Stargate, Oak Felder, Andy Grammer, Tove Lo, St. Vincent, The Chemical Brothers, Alessia Cara, Dua Lipa, Demi Lovato, Angus and Julia Stone, Freeform Five, Ruel, Kimbra, Mansionair, Panama, Kylie Minogue, Meg Mac, Yuka Honda, Flight Facilities, Joss Stone, The Rubens, Marc Kinchen, Lisa Mitchell and actress Emmy Rossum.

He has worked in some of the greatest studios in the US including Sunset Sound, Eastwest, Sound City, The Village Recorder, Right Track, The Hit Factory, Henson, etc.He has been passionate about audio for well over 30 years and has been involved in all aspects of recording. 

Eric has also been actively involved in the world of Dolby atmos and spatial audio, mixing multiple releases for ODESZA and Flume. 

Director 

Milly recently joined Milk & Honey in October 2022 as the Managing Director Australasia and has been appointed the Global Director of Social and Cultural Responsibility of the music management company. 

This new appointment followed a 27-year tenure with APRA AMCOS, where she worked with APRA AMCOS' 110,000 members to help collect their worldwide royalties and create global Songwriting opportunities and programs to help increase awareness, recognition and financial return for Australian/NZ songwriters, producers and artists and publishers.

Milly’s APRA AMCOS role included management of the Global offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, London and Berlin managing a Member Relations team and together they delivered support, recognition and acknowledgement for APRA AMCOS members residing overseas and maintained 99% retention.  To help acknowledge the success of Australian and New Zealand songwriters, producers and artists Milly also created the Billions List Awards which has been instrumental in shining a light on the success of our industry to the global stage.

Beloved in the music industry for every one of her 27 years at APRA AMCOS, she was nominated for the Industry Impact Award at the inaugural The Industry Observer Awards in 2018. On top of her role as Director of Member Relations & Partnerships for APRA AMCOS and Creative Director of APRA’s Music Awards, Milly ran other initiatives such as the APRA AMCOS Ambassador Program, the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition and SongHubs.

By far Milly’s greatest legacy remains the creation and management of the SongHubs program which  helped pave the way for many Australian and New Zealand songwriters, producers and artists. Launched in 2013 SongHubs has produced over 1,500 songs, earning in excess of AUD$4million in performance royalties for the initiative’s collaborators.  SongHubs has produced commercial releases for the likes of Briggs, Troye Sivan, Tayla Parx, Morgan Evans, Client Liaison, Peking Duk, Tkay Maidza, Ainslie Wills, The Chainsmokers, Guy Sebastian, Ecca Vandal, Kate Miller-Heidke and many more. 

The Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition has the largest cash prize of any songwriting competition in the world with over $80,000 cash prize each year for the past 10 years of the competition adding approx. AUD$1mllion dollars directly to the creators of those original songs and has raised in excess of $1.6 million for charity. 

Milly also established a relationship with Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras delivering an industry showcase event, Express Yourself – Queer Discovery a showcase for emerging LGBTQI+ musicians, a joint initiative with Mardi Gras and APRA AMCOS.  Winners of this showcase series are provided with performance opportunities at numerous Sydney Mardi Gras events throughout the year. 

Milly is also on the Board of Nordoff Robbins, the Country Music Advisory Group and is on the Jury for Australia Decides Eurovision competition.