Masterclass with Reza Davoudi

It was the first ever BIMM Berlin Masterclass and it was a terrific way to start. Our guest speaker for the session was Reza Davoudi, who brought his 20+ years of entertainment industry experience to the first Berlin Masterclass audience.

Working with a broad range of artists in multiple areas of the music industry, gave Reza an enviable wealth of knowledge to draw upon. He runs his own artist management and development company named nineteen95, taking care of musicians at every step of their career, from the creative process to financial management, and from marketing and sponsorship, to touring and live promotions.

Alongside this thriving business, Reza also runs the 61seconds record label, releasing music by the likes of Those Goddamn Hippies, We Love Machines and others. As if that wasn’t enough to keep him busy, Reza also organises the DNA BLN showcases. ‘DNA’ stands for ‘Discover New Artists’ and the live events are set up to do exactly that. The next event takes place in Berlin on 26 November at Musik & Frieden, so Berlin students should be sure to check it out.

Not surprisingly, Reza’s Masterclass was able to touch on a huge range of topics that proved fascinating to our students. He shared stories of early days trading black market music cassettes in Iran before travelling to Canada to study at the Harris Institute of Recording Arts. He discussed his work in the film and TV industry, including stints with Miramax and David Letterman, eventually leading to his settling in Europe and founding his businesses.

Student Ramon Manas Corbinos was one of many who got a great deal out of Reza’s session:

“I loved how he explained everything by giving real life experience examples. He explained how the industry works and how it’s actually evolving, along with a really good sense of humour.”

Student Lisa Kogler agreed:

“In our lessons we’re always discussing the authenticity of music. Reza was authentic and he explained the music industry in an honest, easy to understand and entertaining way. His way of speaking about good and bad experiences has personally given me a positive outlook for what will happen next in my career.”

There were so many questions and so much the students wanted to discuss that the Masterclass overran, but Reza graciously carried on chatting! Our Berlin students are firmly on his radar for future DNA BLN events so students should be sure to check out the November showcase and get involved.