Laurence Desarzens is New SME President

Posted by on Okt 7, 2020
Laurence Desarzens is New SME President

A very warm welcome to Laurence Desarzens, the new president of the board of Swiss Music Export! Laurence replaces Balthasar Glättli who performed this function from 2014 until 2020. Balthasar resigned from SME in order to devote more time to his other occupations which include the presidency of the Green Party of Switzerland and a seat in the National Council. It is with huge gratitude for his tireless work and imaginative input that we say goodbye to Balthasar and wish him the very best for his future ventures.

Laurence will already be familiar to quite a few of our esteemed readers. Born and raised in Geneva, she brought the Young Gods to international attention as their early manager. She was subsequently responsible for shaping the programming of venues like Moods and Rote Fabrik in Zurich, and Kaserne Basel. She did pioneering work in the area of digital streaming and, from 2016 to 2020, she was the director of the Jazz and Pop departments of the HEMU – Haute École de Musique in Lausanne. Laurence is chair of the jury of the Swiss Music Prize by the Federal Office of Culture. She is also the president of the festival association Les Créatives and has acted as the vice president of Swiss Music Export since 2019.

One of the first tasks Laurence Dezarzens will be involved with is the launch of a new Swiss Music Export campaign, “Starting Over”. The campaign is designed to support Swiss artists in their endeavours to recharge their careers during and after the corona crisis. The campaign will support digital marketing campaigns via music and video streaming services as well as the production of digital presentation packages in order to counteract the absence of festivals and showcases.

The structure of Swiss Music Export will remain unchanged, with Jean Zuber continuing as Managing Director. See our Info Desk for more detailed information.

Photo © Nicolas Duc

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