Meet The IMA Team
Martin is proud to be one of the 73 million people who discovered The Beatles’ during the band’s first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February, 1964. Finding new artists and new music remains a lifelong passion.
Among the many roles he plays on the Music Resource Group stage are: Director of The Independent Music Awards (IMA) and Publisher of The Musician’s Atlas. He leads the company’s sales, sponsorships and partnership efforts and is a frequent speaker at national music conferences. He graduated from Boston University’s School of Public Communication with a B.S. in public relations. Indeed! He left that industry many moons ago to help found Music Resource Group, parent company of The IMAs and The Atlas.
When not sporting a pair of headphones or getting as close to front and center in a concert hall or club as possible, you might catch him pursuing his other passions which include cooking, reading and spending quality time with his family & friends.
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Jude is 1/2 of the celebrated husband & wife team of Folkman & Folkman, who in a former life as principals of the NYC PR/Marketing firm The KITA Group, helped Ban The Box to save the music industry & the planet from drowning in wasteful
CD packages.
As Chief Strategy Officer & Director of Marketing, Jude wears many hats (and shoes) at Music Resource Group. An omnivore, Jude cooks and devours creatures great & small (with gusto – not pesto); is a sinophile, tree-hugging political junkie who reads anything she can, whenever she can.
Bereft of any musical talent, Jude may be the only one on the planet who has no shot at a musical career. However, she is often heard applauding from front row center.
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Lauren is the Program/Event Coordinator of The Independent Music Awards and Managing Editor of the Musician’s Atlas. She is a graduate from Fairfield University (CT) & The Lorenzo de Medici School (Florence, Italy) with a degree in Marketing, Music & Women Studies. Lauren has spent the past decade of her career working in many facets of the music industry including: Performance, Licensing, Retail, Teaching, CD/DVD Distribution & Marketing, for companies located in the NYC area.
In addition to her position at MRG, she is on the Board of Directors for the NYC-based organization Women In Music (go join now!). She is also the co-founder of Hydrogen Licensing & Marketing, LLC – a Music, Fashion & Art licensing firm dedicated to finding new avenues & breathing new life into artists’ mediums.
She is a self-proclaimed germaphobe who enjoys Morningstar Farms products, 80s cartoons & finds most things awkward. She can be seen around the office displaying OCD tendencies, having 17 beverages on her desk at all times & asking James to lower his music (sorry James).
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James is the Record Label Relations Manager at The Independent Music Awards/Musician’s Atlas, and likes to spend his free time not having much of an internet/social networking presence. He studied music journalism in college while working at a now-closed record store, still buys CDs & records, still subscribes to and reads print, and, much like the elusive and noble bigfoot, is a creature whose very nature is being challenged and endangered by his rapidly diminishing habitat.
Some of the artists that are currently soothing his big, fuzzy head include: NOFX, The Weakerthans, Gwar, The Hold Steady, Teenage Bottlerocket, Mariachi El Bronx, The Cramps, P.O.S., The Descendents and Frank Turner.
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Robert is the Clubs Editor for The Musician’s Atlas & the Talent Buyer Relations Manager for The Independent Music Awards. He has a BA in Music Education with a concentration in Percussion and over a decade of teaching and performance experience. He has proudly been a member of several independent bands which have garnered an impressive list of accomplishments, including an Independent Music Award for Best Pop Song.
His interests also apply to other dynamics of the music world including music technology, composition, journalism and pop musicology. No one around the office is safe from Robert’s pranks and bad jokes. In his free time, he enjoys being creative, spending time outside and hunting down the elusive Bigfoot.
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MySpace: www.MySpace.com/RobertMusiciansAtlas
Follow: www.twitter.com/ClubCzar
Adam is a vegetarian who fronts the group Those Mockingbirds. He handles all things under the umbrella of Artist Relations here at MRG, including the Artist Spotlight program, and directly speaking to artists about The Independent Music Awards on a level that they can understand…from another musician. Adam doesn’t watch movies or much television and spends any free time he might be lucky to come across writing music, and listening to new albums so he can argue with James Potter about their ‘artistic merit’ during lunch breaks.
His current obsessions in the music world are: Sonic Youth, Cave In, Arctic Monkeys, Dirty Projectors, and as always, Nirvana.
BONUS FUN FACT: Adam tries to only wear black and/or white.
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Follow: www.twitter.com/IMAadam
Dorian likes movies and music, which is why he works for IMAtv. He’s a Brooklyn, NY native, leaving only briefly to study Film at Boston University.
It is usually impossible to get Dorian’s attention in the office, because his headphones are blasting the likes of Jay-Z, Wu-Tang Clan, or Flying Lotus. Outside of The Independent Music Awards office, Dorian makes short films and shoots music videos as a freelance cinematographer and editor.
Dorian is the only employee of The Independent Music Awards to have ever skateboarded to work.
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