Citrusfest will be held on January 26, 20212 from 8pm EST to 10pm EST with special guest host Jenna Ushkowitz one of the stars from the cast of Glee.
Jenna Ushkowitz is known for her role as Tina Cohen-Chang for six seasons on the 3-time Emmy nominated, FOX television series, Glee. Recently, Jenna made her Producing debut on Broadway with the Revival of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s Once on This Island, winning her a Tony Award and is also a co-producer of the West End production of THE JUNGLE and BE MORE CHILL and THE INHERITANCE on Broadway. In 2016, Jenna returned to Broadway as Dawn, in Tony-nominated musical WAITRESS. She also starred in the musical movie, HELLO, AGAIN, alongside Audra McDonald, Cheyenne Jackson and Martha Plimpton. Jenna also served as the executive producer of Twinsters, a film documentary about two identical twins separated at birth and then are reunited. She then felt compelled to co-found the Kindred: The Foundation for Adoption, an American foundation to aid adoptees and their families with fellow adoptee Samantha Futerman (Director of Twinsters). In 2015, Jenna headlined as Julia Gulia in The Wedding Singer at the Pittsburgh CLO. She starred in the Hollywood Bowl special production of Hair in 2014. Prior to becoming a Gleek, Jenna made her Broadway Debut in the 1996 Revival of The King and I and returned to the Broadway in the Tony Award winning production of Spring Awakening. Jenna released her first memoir, “Choosing Glee” in May 2013. Ushkowitz also helped co-found the media co., At Will Media. She attended Marymount Manhattan College, where she graduated in just three short years with a B.A. in Acting and a minor in Musical Theatre.
music
executives
Bruce Waynne
Bruce Waynne is a creative executive who is half of the Grammy Award-winning production duo MIDI Mafia, most notable for their production of 50 Cent’s number-one single “21 Questions”, Frank Ocean, Jennifer Lopez, John Legend, and Fantasia, to name a few. Bruce has developed and signed artists to major record labels like Elektra, Atlantic, and SRC/Universal Motown. In addition to his work at ACME Music, Bruce is actively educating creatives, and currently serves as Vice President of Transparence Entertainment Group, a music rights organization that identifies, collects, and distributes unclaimed sound recording performance royalties. He and his MIDI Mafia production partner also founded The MADE Series, a production music library in partnership with Extreme Music/Sony ATV.
Teresa LaBarbera
Teresa LaBarbera is one of the top music executives in the world. She is responsible for the discovery of Beyoncé, Destiny’s Child and Jessica Simpson working side by side with these artists in their development for decades. She has worked with Beyoncé on all of the superstar’s music including the critically acclaimed Beyoncé and Lemonade visual albums as well as The Lion King: The Gift, Black is King Film and The Carters Everything is Love. She worked with Jessica Simpson on the release of new music to accompany Jessica’s memoir, Open Book, a #1 New York Times Bestseller. Until recently, Teresa was the Head of Music Operations and A&R for Beyonce’s Parkwood Entertainment, where she oversaw all the company’s music operations and the label’s artist roster, which includes her development of the 5x Grammy nominated Chloe and Halle. Before joining Parkwood, Teresa spent 24 years at Sony Music as Sr. VP of A&R for both Columbia Records and Jive Records. She was consistently brought in to work directly with artists on their projects including Britney Spears acclaimed Blackout album and was Executive Producer on Spears’ comeback album Circus. She has also worked with Pink, Backstreet Boys and Katharine McPhee to name a few. Her projects have sold over eighty million+ records and her creative role spans from A&R to Executive Producer, Music Supervisor and Artist Manager. Teresa was included in Billboard Magazine’s A&R Power Player List and is a sought after speaker and mentor and has served on the Recording Academy’s Board of Trustees and The Recording Academy’s Texas Chapter Board of Governors.
Dahlia Ambach Caplin
Dahlia Ambach Caplin is an Award-winning music executive and an honoree of Billboard’s 2019 Women in Music. As SVP of A&R at Verve Label Group (which includes legendary label Impulse Records, Verve Records, Verve Forecast, among others) Dahlia has most recently signed Grammy nominated Tank and the Bangas, Cynthia Erivo, Jon Batiste, Shabaka Hutchings and his groups Sons of Kemet and Shabaka & the Ancestors, the band The Comet Is Coming, among many others. Dahlia is the A&R mind behind the successful Verve Remixed series – which has sold over 1 million units worldwide to date and started a genre trend that has remained at the forefront of synch/licensing -- as well as the 2008 Grammy Album Of The Year, River: The Joni Letters from the great Herbie Hancock.
​
Dahlia started her career working with legend Wayne Shorter as assistant tour manager (and has remained close with him since) – shortly thereafter she started at Verve Records working in international publicity with the likes of Diana Krall and other Verve flagship artists. Dahlia has been at Verve for over 20 years, shaping the labels, signing forward thinking, iconic artists and continues to do so. Dahlia has a wide-ranging eclectic taste herself, and currently particularly loves SAULT, Rosalia and Four Tet.
Lisa Lauricella
At ViacomCBS, Lisa Lauricella oversees music strategy & artist relations for MTV. As Vice President of Music, she works closely with artists, managers & labels, to create meaningful opportunities to partner on award shows, events, series & content, across all platforms - including the Video Music Awards. Lisa has been with MTV for over 17 years, working on shows including the Video Music Awards, Movie & TV Awards, TRL, Spring Break, New Year’s Eve & more. Lisa’s passion for music drives her to continually discover new artists, understand their brand & work together to bring their music to the masses.
Neil Levine
A veteran executive of the entertainment industry with an eye firmly fixed on the digital future, Neil Levine has been at the cutting edge of entertainment innovation since the early days of hip hop. A content creator, curator, and marketer, Levine is now firmly positioned in product placement with a constantly expanding reach across platforms. Known for his media savvy, sharp eye for new talent, and market insight, Levine has
been discovering, developing, and distributing world class music and media for more than 25 years.
A native New Yorker, Levine graduated from the Berklee College of Music. His first job was in a record distribution warehouse, where he talked his way into the sales department. Within a year, he had become the distributor’s top sales representative and the go-to guy for knowing what was hot in music creation, and where it was being sold. He continued that combination of insider know-how and marketing technique throughout a varied career: he has marketing created marketing companies, record labels, publishing companies, held positions at TVT Records, where he launched the careers of the multi-platform artists Lil’ Jon & The Eastside Boyz, headed Sony Music Entertainment’s artist development division Battery Records as well as being a key member of the Jive A&R team, and launched an artist development division at EMI Music, Imperial Records and running the urban business for Capitol Records as well as running the worldwide operation of Rykodisc.
In 1994, he co-founded Penalty Recordings, a music and entertainment company that oversaw the success of artists like Noreaga (NORE), Capone N’ Noreaga, Lord Finesse, The Beatnuts, and Crooked Lettaz (David Banner). Relaunching the company in 2014 in partnership with Sony Music and Sony RED, Levine has steered Penalty through multiple periods of industry disruption. His current focus is working with talent in an across-the-board capacity, managing their interests and conceiving new distribution pathways to help them reach the widest and most eager audiences.
In 2018, Levine launched a management division by signing on as co-manager of the 17 year old rap/pop duo known as the SiAngie Twins (Sianney and Angelise Garcia.) Philadelphia natives of Puerto Rican descent, the twins currently boast an Instagram following of nearly 1.6 million active users and 3.7 million on Tik Tok, and have been developed since age three by their older brother, three time World Championship boxer Danny Garcia. Levine is also consults a number of independent artists as well as record companies thru his label services division.
Levine loves mentoring young people, and prides himself on a constant commitment to growth. “What I love about this field is that it’s constantly changing. The music business today is completely different than the one I grew up in, but that means I can apply my years of experience and knowledge to develop the stars of tomorrow”.