Women’s Stories Panel Luncheon: Music Business

Photo credit: Jerritt Clark

This past Wednesday afternoon (5/15), the Beverly Hills CUT Restaurant located inside the beautiful Beverly Wilshire Hotel was the home for the 2nd Annual Women’s Stories Luncheon. Hosted by the all women leadership team of Hilary Henderson (chef de cuisine) and Ellen Farentino (General Manager CUT), this intimate lunch rounded up many powerful music industry leaders who know how to “speak up”.

With about 50 women and 1 men in attendance, it was an afternoon of delicious Wolfgang Punk cuisine and thought-provoking and inspiring discussion about what it means to be a women in the music industry today. This event also supported the Downtown Women’s Center of Los Angeles who are celebrating 40 Years of ending homelessness for women. A portion of the proceeds of the afternoon will be donated to this valuable institution which provides a Health clinic exclusively for women in Skid Row; Drop-in Day Center exclusively for homeless women in the city of Los Angeles; and more.

Photo Credit- Jerritt Clark

The panel invited to speak included the following successful women; Alisa Coleman, COO of ABKCO, Music & Records Inc (She became the first COO in 2016, started ABKCO’s sound track division, an accomplished art director with credit for Rolling Stones Remastered Series CDs and the Grammy-winning DVD “Sam Cooke Legend” and so much more), AG, producer/writer/mix engineer (She has worked with multiple artists at Def Jam, Atlantic Records, has worked on movies/shows like Taken, Beauty & The Beast, Empire, Pretty Little liars etc. and an on going list of titles she has worked with), Jacqueline Charlsworth, Music Attorney (Honored by Billboard Magazine as a Woman Executive, one of the four powerhouse females in the industry) and Monika Tashman, Partner of Manatt, Phelps & Philips (One of the top music lawyers who most recently became a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips). This panel was moderated by Andrea Domanick (Editor, writes for Noisey, LA Times Music, Rolling Stone, etc.).

Photo Credit- Jerritt Clark

After they each introduced themselves and talked about how they got into the music business, they opened the floor to questions. Questions were about balancing a work life with a growing family and deciding what is most important and figuring that out. One point consistently brought up was the fact that if women had the support of each other, there would be a much stronger voice heard. At this time, women make up 3% of the music business and the group was hopeful that this will only continue to rise with the new generations to come. Women need to be the agent of change and go walk through doors. The final thought of the afternoon from the panel was that now is the best time to be a women in this industry and it will only get better.

Throughout the engaging conversation, a delicious full course meal was being served by the stellar staff at Cut. The meal began with an avocado and tomato salad followed by delicious steak fries, sauteed spinach, steak and salmon slices and a dessert of fresh berries and a heart-shaped pastry.

For more information: https://wolfgangpuck.com/