NOISEMAKERS:
FAB FEMALES
In observance of Women's History Month, our latest roundup features eight women from various parts of the biz whose dedication and effort make their superiors look good.
Making us look good is above their pay grade.
Chissy Nkemere
Lead, Rock, Alternative & Catalog, Artist Partnerships, Spotify
Among other achievements, Nkemere founded Women in Music’s summer-internship program, whose participants are paid. She also oversaw one of Spotify’s earliest Fans First events, with St. Vincent (escape rooms were involved). In February she helped launch CLASSICS, the platform’s first catalog brand, featuring albums by artists like SZA, Beyoncé, Cardi B and Tyler, The Creator. And in March, she led the debut of MARROW, the Spot’s new rock playlist. Nkemere loves to host dinner parties with her partner and their dog, Harris—who makes sure we steer clear.
Mary Tran
VP, Marketing & International, Capitol Christian Music Group
Tran’s path from intern to VP is marked by milestones like the success of Chris Tomlin (to whom she once passed beach balls for him to kick into the crowd at London’s O2)—10m albums sold, 7b global streams, 21 radio #1s and 15 Grammy noms. Along the way, she’s also worked on Anne Wilson’s debut, My Jesus, NF’s CLOUDS and HOPE and Brooke Ligertwood’s 8. She’s now preparing for Wilson’s highly anticipated REBEL, due 4/19. Tran is proud to be an “AAAA”: Asian Aussie American Aries. We’re often described as an awfully annoying, abrasive albatross.
Shoshana Reist
Creative Manager, RCA Records
When Reist was at AWAL, she supported Djo’s 2022 album DECIDE, whose “End of Beginning” is climbing the Pop chart after going viral on TikTok. She’s worked with Ari Abdul and Isaac Dunbar at RCA and contributed to events like the one promoting Kevin Abstract’s 2023 Blanket. She’s now lending creative support to Cage the Elephant’s Neon Pill (due 5/17), debut albums by Normani and Matt Champion and music by Dhruv. Her karaoke picks? The Misfits’ “Saturday Night” and Lady Gaga’s “You & I.” We’ve been banned from Karaoke due to lackluster performance.
Elah Shalev
Manager, Data Analytics, Interscope
Shalev is proud to say that most viral trends—Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” (600m+ global streams), Lana Del Rey’s “Say Yes to Heaven” (300m+) and Olivia Rodrigo’s “drivers license” (3b+)—are first identified by the analytics team. Working on the pop/rock roster, she’s establishing new ways to analyze artist fan bases, including the behavior of Gaga, Del Rey, Gracie Abrams, Reneé Rapp and d4vd superfans, and collaborating on tools to help access information more easily. Shalev has a mahjong group that meets nearly every week. We’re never invited.
Emily Berwald
Senior Label Manager, Virgin Music Group
For Berwald, nothing tops being guest-listed for a show, especially since she grew up spending “every dollar and cent” she had on concerts. Some of the most memorable of her career have been Carly Rae Jepsen, Two Door Cinema Club, The Used and Kim Petras. More recently, this longtime fan of the Veronicas was excited to work on the duo’s latest album, Gothic Summer (released 3/22), plus new music by Elohim, Jelani Aryeh and Jean Dawson. Having played violin for 14 years, Berwald decided the biz side was a better fit… until she had to deal with us.
Nathalia Vieira
Sync Lead, ONErpm/ONE Publishing
Vieira fondly recalls being part of the music-supervision team on 2022’s Day Shift and being invited to Snoop Dogg’s studio to listen to unreleased music—“Can confirm Snoop is the best,” she allows. Among her latest accomplishments for ONE: landing San Francisco DJ/dance producer JAUZ a placement on Fortnite Radio. She’s also working on her own music series, SOMSIREN, sharing weekly playlists, music history and more to make music discovery easy and fun. Vieira loves photography and has been shooting since she was a teen. Our mugs tend to break cameras.
Bre Harper
Director of Artist & Label Strategy, Hip-Hop and R&B, Stem
Harper has garnered 20m+ TikTok views on marketing campaigns she’s executed for such artists as Coco Jones, Trinidad Cardona and Monaleo, which made her own TikTok account go viral. At the moment, she’s got all hands on deck for Irish-Vietnamese R&B songstress Sinead Harnett, who will drop her next album, Boundaries, on 4/26. Harper is also a songwriter who’s pursued a master’s degree in the craft at Berklee College of Music; she writes music for film and television. Our writing skills are subpar at best.
Kathryn Aberlin
Talent Buyer, The Bowery Presents
Aberlin got to book one of her favorite bands, Blur, to headline Madison Square Garden (the show sold out). She also booked and promoted Brandi Carlile’s performance of Joni Mitchell’s Blue at Carnegie Hall. And she secured a third MSG show for Japanese film composer Joe Hisaishi after a 2022 five-night Radio City Music Hall run highlighting his scores for the films of Hayao Miyazaki. Aberlin’s relative Lady Aberlin was featured in the Neighborhood of Make-Believe on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. We’ve been known to negatively affect property values.
