youtu.be/8_KiLO_8L0s

or

However, it was clear that Greg Ketchum has and continues to work as part of a pair with Tom Godici.  Both carry two decades of experience in the business of advertising as Executive Creative Directors at Ogilvy & Mather, David Ogilvy’s brainchild advertising agency, and now hold the same positions at BBDO, a worldwide advertising agency network formed by the merger of Barton, Durstine & Osborn and the Batten Company.  They are best known for the launch of the “Smarter Planet” campaign for IBM during their time at Ogilvy.  “Smarter Planet” is IBM’s creative business strategy to make the planet “smarter” through organization and distribution of data, the collaboration between systems, businesses, and technologies, and advancement of management to oversee the interconnection, intelligence, and instrumentation of our resources in a changing world.  As you can see, advertising today has definitely expanded from those little drawing boards we see on Mad Men.

Ketchum returned to BBDO in December of last year after once working there between 1989 and 1997 at the West Coast branch.  During those eight years Ketchum was the Creative Director on the Apple Computer account.  He then moved to a Hal Riney & Partners (now Publicis & Hal Riney) serving as Creative Director for Saturn and Worldwide Creative Director for HP.  This time at BBDO, Ketchum will be overseeing many different accounts and clients for the expansive agency.  Ketchum stresses, “I’m a copy-writer first.”  But he’s definitely a copy-writer with a whole lot of experience and power.

Also like Don Draper, Ketchum has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the advertising and creative world, moving on up, making big creative director power moves.  Except, I’m pretty sure he didn’t go through all that Korean War drama and isn’t harboring a secret past and a secret name.  We can only hope that despite this distinction, he still sips whiskey straight in his office like it’s his job.

-Dayna Uyeda

Christopher Jahnke brings a different kind of expertise to the table. Boasting 25+ years of musical experience, Chris has worked behind the scenes as an orchestrator as well as directly with the cast as a Music producer and supervisor. Working in these roles has given Chris a unique perspective that has undoubtedly contributed to his proficiency in music. Chris, who has always been interested in the way music influences emotion, describes his role as orchestrator very simply, “You are essentially responsible to create the way a piece feels sonically”.

As an orchestrator, Chris has worked on several projects including: Les Misérables (2006), Grease (2007), Cry-Baby (2008), andcurrently, Porgy and Bess. Chris has international experience as well; he orchestrated Legally Blonde on the West End in London in 2010, 3 years after using the same orchestrations that were used for the Broadway showing. He has also worked with his mentor, William David Brohn (Wicked, Miss Saigon, Ragtime), in co-orchestrating the Lincoln Center Theater’s production of Dessa Rose and A Man of No Importance. Chris is grateful for his oppurtunities to work with Brohn, “I’ve learned more from him and I still continue to than I did in college”

In 2001, Chris worked directly with David Bryan on Memphis: A New Musical, a production that took over eight years to complete. Bryan, keyboard player and founding member of Bon Jovi, worked with Chris as his Musical Producer to create the musical hit. Their years of effort were well rewarded – Memphis won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical.

Chris believes that there needs to be some sort of bond between co-workers when collaborating in order to create the best music, “Working with every composer is a challenge, When you have a good friendship and a good working relationship you kind of help bring the best out of each person you work with”.

By Tony Saint Jean

Daniel Karslake

Daniel Karslake: documentary producer, director, writer, and, most importantly, life changer.  A New Yorker with a public policy degree from our very own Duke University, Mr. Karslake has tackled each production project with gusto, bringing awareness to problems native to the United States and abroad.

After attending USC film school, Mr. Karslake got his start in fundraising with City of Hope.  He did this in New York, constantly traveling back and forth between there and the West coast.  While in this position, he met the host of PBS’s newsmagazine In The Life.  He took this opportunity to do some work with them while still at City of Hope, but soon took the leap to completely focus on producing for the program, which focuses on issues concerning homosexuality, religion, and where the two meet.  It does not come at too large a surprise, then, that his first major film, For the Bible Tells Me So (2007), also zeroes down on this subject, following five separate American families on their journeys to reconcile their religious beliefs with their children’s sexual identities.  This film won several awards and nominations in the film festival circuit, including gaining a spot at Sundance, and garnered much support with both religious and LGBT communities.  Comments on Youtube called the film life changing and powerful.

After the success of his first film, Mr. Karslake began work on his second film, Every Three Seconds, which tackles the subject of world poverty and hunger.  As a more dynamic approach to hunger, the film strives to focus on human motivation, or lack thereof, to help end hunger and many other world problems.  It will focus on five people who all have experienced a hunger to change their world and how they accomplished such a seemingly large feat.

You can find Mr. Karslake on his LinkedIn profile and his Twitter, @dogooderdan.  Read articles about Mr. Karslake from Duke Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Professional Destiny. Also watch interviews with him on his two films here and here.

Throughout his tenure at Duke, Colin worked as an intern with V2 Records, helping to market and execute the indie rock band Roman Candle’s lifestyle tour; he interned with the Warner Music Group; and he spent a summer working for a think-tank, the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress (an internship which fulfilled requirements for his public policy major). After graduation, Colin went on to work as an independent contractor for several months, providing marketing and e-commerce services to various bands and artists. He then took a position with the music and technology company Indaba Music in December of 2009. Colin currently serves as marketing manager at Indaba, where he’s developed the online marketing and social media campaigns for artists such as Paul Simon, Daft Punk, Metric, and Peter Gabriel.

Colin is also a musician himself. He plays guitar and has been writing songs for over eight years, citing Americana as his biggest influence.

-Emma Miller

Jessica Laun

Jessica Laun graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University in 2005, with degrees in Music Theory and Composition and International Comparative Studies. During her time at Duke, she was heavily involved in the campus music scene, being a member of the Duke Chorale and music director of Rhythm & Blue, Duke’s oldest co-ed a capella group.

After graduating from Duke and spending some time at home in San Diego, she decided to move to New York City to follow her passion in the music industry. Thanks to her relationships with Professors of music Stephen Jaffe and Anthony Kelley, Jessicca was able to enter the industry through a year-long internship at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). In 2006, she began working at Boosey & Hawkes as a publications and marketing coordinator. During her time at Boosey & Hawkes, Jessica moved on from being the publications coordinator for the company’s choral series into music licensing for tv, film, and advertising. As part of the Synchronized Licensing Department of the company, she was responsible for pitching and licensing music for such tv shows and movies as The Simpsons, The Truman Show, and the Spiderman series.

After working at Boosey & Hawkes for approximately 3 years, Jessica was hired by Warner/Chappell Music, where she currently works as a Senior Manager of Strategic Marketing. Besides her current occupation, Jessica is also the Secretary on the board of directors for The Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, where she helps program concerts to encourage young musicians in the field of choral music.

Jessica has stated that she is very happy to have found her dream job, commenting on the subject; “You just can’t be afraid to try and really go after what you want. If there’s anytime to do it, to take a risk, it’s as a college graduate.”

 -Barış Köksalan

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Andrew May

Andrew May is a man of many assorted interests.  As he lists on his LinkedIn page, some of these interests include music, art, film, photography, bikes, books, friends, and sunshine.  Mr. May sings, he plays instruments, and with a reported 19, 732 songs in his iTunes library, to say he loves to listen to music would be an understatement.

He grew up in Illinois and graduated from Baylor University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Digital Media.  He now works as a producer at Sound Lounge in New York, overseeing all operations at the company.  Interestingly enough, Andrew actually began his career at Sound Lounge as an intern, last year, while he was still a senior at Baylor.  Then, after graduation, he continued on to work at Sound Lounge as a production coordinator and, later, a marketing coordinator before ultimately transitioning into his current position as a producer.

For those unfamiliar with the work of Sound Lounge, Sound Lounge is a New York City based company that provides premium audio services for commercials, television series, feature films, video games, and an array of other new forms of media.  They work with major ad agencies and production companies, both inside and outside of the United States, and Sound Lounge’s feature film department has a well-regarded history of providing complete audio post-production service for some of the most influential documentaries and independent films to come out of New York City.  Some of the many acclaimed films that have enlisted the services of Sound Lounge include Rachel Getting Married, Limitless, Blue Valentine, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? 

[To learn more about Sound Lounge and their commendable body of work, check out their website.]

Aside from his work at Sound Lounge, Andrew May also produces movies and has acted as a Freelance Audio Engineer.  The movie he is currently producing is called Where We Started, and it is a film about two strangers, a man and a woman, both married, who contemplate having an affair.  Where We Started tackles the provocative question, “When there’s a line you know you shouldn’t cross…what makes you cross it anyway?”

Andrew May has a fun, quirky personal website, so if you’d like to learn even more about him and his eclectic interests, please check it out.

–Christian Tyler

After his time at Duke, Eric earned his masters degree from the Program in Arts Administration at Teachers College, Columbia University, where his thesis appears in the anthology 20UNDER40. Eric is also an alumni of the Harvard Arts in Education Graduate Program, where he also worked as a special projects associate.

Apart from his impressive scholarly track record, Eric has also accomplished a lot in the world of business and music. Eric has worked at the Lincoln Center, The Carolina Theatre of Durham, and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where he helped to coordinate the organization’s 50th anniversary celebration. Eric currently serves as Executive Director of the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, a New York-based non-profit that supports the work of the GRAMMY Award-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He was a producer on two of the orchestra’s albums, 40 Acers and a Burro and Rise Negra, which was named one of the top jazz albums of 2009 by The Wall St. Journal and The Village Voice.

As a musician, Eric produces music along with playing the Drums and Saxophone.

This Wednesday, I have the pleasure of introducing Gene Scheer, one of the most celebrated songwriters, lyricists, and  - most of all – librettists of our time. To those new to the term, let me first clarify what a librettist is: he is the writer of a libretto, which is the text used in a large and extended musical work such as oratorio, opera, operetta, masque, cantata, or musical. In some cases, the “libretto” can also refer to the text of major sacred works, namely the mass, requiem, and sacred cantata.

He received his education at the Eastman School of Music, where he earned his Bachelor of Music and Masters of Music. Upon graduation, he was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Cologne in Germany. He subsequently participated in a fellowship at Vienna’s Hochschule Für Musik. While in Vienna, Scheer was granted lead musical theater roles, which he also performed in Munich and Cologne.

His works as a composer and librettist have been performed around the world, notably with the Dallas Opera and Symphony Orchestra (respectively), the Houston Grand Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, the Linbury Theater at Covent Garden in London, and more recently in Carnegie Hall. Through his career, he has collaborated with composer Jake Heggie, composer Steven Stucky, and jazz trumpeter/composer/bandleader Wynton Marsalis, among many other great talents today.

As a composer, he has written songs for many performing artists, such as Jennifer Larmore, Denyce Graces and Nathan Gunn. In fact, his piece “American Anthem” has been performed for President Clinton and the First Lady, on “Oprah” after the September 11^th tragedy, at President George Bush’s 2005 Inauguration, and by Patti Labelle and the US Army Band and Chorus.

Please join me in welcoming Mr. Scheer on Wednesday the 19^th, for our open panel discussion.