Executives, Managers, Songwriters & More

Farry was an industry veteran who had stints at Atlantic and Epic Records before going on to serve as tour manager for acts including Elliott Smith and The Lemonheads. She was also the first nanny to Frances Bean Cobain, daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. She was 58.

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Holland was the longtime managing director of Universal Classics & Jazz, which was renamed Decca in 2009. Later in his career, he took an A&R consultant role at Warner Classics. He worked with artists including Andrea Bocelli, Jamie Cullum and The Three Tenors. He was 79.

Krantz founded Krantz Media Group in 2008, serving as its president and CEO. He was formerly chief digital media officer at Westwood One, president of Air America Radio and executive vp at Clear Channel/Premiere Networks. He was 65.

Pang was a veteran booking agent who worked with artists including Lauryn Hill, Zendaya, The Beach Boys and Usher at ICM. He began working independently with his clients after leaving the agency in 2020 following its merger with CAA. He was 69.

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McGarrigle was a Canadian songwriter, musician, music publisher and manager who wrote and performed alongside her younger sisters, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and managed their careers from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s. She served on the boards of SOCAN and the Songwriters Association of Canada. She was 83.

Vaughn was president/CEO of Warner Chappell Nashville. Under his leadership, the company consistently dominated Billboard‘s Country Airplay publisher rankings; he was named Billboard‘s Country Power Players executive of the year in 2020. He was 49.

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Gotti co-founded the influential Murder Inc. Records, where he made stars out of artists including Ashanti and Ja Rule. He was 54.

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Weidenmueller, the founder of electronic label and music company K7!, was also recognized for his advocacy around sustainability and inclusion. He was 60.

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Turner was the chairman emeritus and longtime board member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, which he helped spearhead as a real estate developer in Nashville. He also developed other Music Row instititutions including the Gulch and the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. He was 77.

As president of Doubleday Broadcasting, the veteran radio executive and on-air personality helped manage stations including WLLZ (“Wheels”) in Detroit, KWK in St. Louis, KPKE (“The Peak”) in Denver, WAVA in Washington D.C., and WAPP (“The Apple”) and WHN in New York. He later became a media investment banker, first at Wertheim Schroeder & Co. and later at his own company, Gary Stevens & Co. He was 77.

As a music archivist at the Library of Congress, Appelbaum helped preserve countless recordings and established the institution as an important center for research into the history of jazz music. He was 67.

As a longtime executive at electronic instrument manufacturer Korg, where he eventually rose to president and CEO, Kato played a key role in developing the influential M1 music workstation. He was 67.

Strobel served as the publicist for the Grand Ole Opry for 30 years and also co-founded Fan Fair, which was later renamed the CMA Music Festival. He was 84.

Phillips was the former president of his family business, Memphis-based indie music distributor Select-O-Hits. He was 74.

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Stephens broke barriers in her long career as a PR executive in the music industry. At MCA, she became the first Black woman appointed vp of publicity and artist development at the label. She also held high-level positions at Polygram, Warner Bros. Records and Bad Boy Worldwide before striking out on her own to found JS Media Relations in 2000.

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The veteran label executive worked at companies including EMI Music and Capitol Records, where he served as senior vp of sales and field marketing. He was 77.

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Ricciardone was the founder and director of the C2C Festival in Turin, Italy. He was 53.

Moore was a key figure in the early success of hip-hop music in the late ’70s and early ’80s, helping write and produce records for rapper Kurtis Blow with Robert “Rocky” Ford Jr. After a stint working with Ford at Billboard, where he was in ad sales and occasionally wrote jazz reviews, he helped craft early hip-hop hits including “The Breaks,” “Christmas Rappin’” and “Basketball.” He was 81.

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Spahr covered the German music business for Billboard between roughly 1973 and 2020 and also ran a music industry newsletter. He was in his mid-80s.

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As a music producer and recording engineer at Memphis’ Stax Records, Manning was behind several hits by The Staple Singers, including “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself.” He was also a musician, photographer and founder of the audio company Lucas Engineering. He was 77.

A more than 20-year music industry veteran, Simon worked as general manager at Garth Brooks’ Pearl Records for seven years. She was 52.

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The promotion and A&R executive helped score record deals for artists including Barenaked Ladies and 3 Doors Down during a 55-year career at companies including Universal, Capitol and Atlantic/ATCO, along with his own label, Flagship Records. He was 70.

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The Nashville and Memphis-based entertainment attorney established his own firm, the Law Office of C. Stephen Weaver, in 1983. He was 76.

The versatile Australian music industry veteran, who worked in sound engineering, production and tour management over his long career, founded Mighty Management and indie label M Records. He also served as a founding member of the Music Managers Forum and a founder and trustee of music industry charity the Golden Stave Foundation.

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Katz was the founding chairman of the entertainment and media practice at Greenberg Traurig. Over the course of his career, he represented many of the music industry’s top executives, as well as artists including Willie Nelson, James Brown, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw, George Strait, Faith Hill, Ludacris and Justin Timberlake, along with the Michael Jackson estate. He was 80.

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Doyle founded the long-shuttered Sin-é cafe and music venue in New York’s East Village, which hosted artists including Jeff Buckley and Sinead O’Connor. He was 73.

A veteran music journalist, Wood served in various roles at Billboard in the ’80s and ’90s, including as editor-in-chief, in addition to stints at Nashville magazine and People, among others. He was 87.

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After starting his career as a composer, Cope developed Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI), an early computer algorithm trained to write music. He later taught at a number of colleges and wrote several books, including 1997’s Experiments in Musical Intelligence, named after the program he created. He was 83.

Avnet started as a road manager for Bette Midler before managing acts including The Manhattan Transfer, David Foster, Josh Groban and Eric Benét. He was 82.

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Shapiro was a music agent who co-founded Sound Talent Group (STG) after previous roles at UTA and the Agency Group. His roster included Sum 41, Pierce the Veil, I Prevail, Set it Off, Story of the Year, Silverstein, Parkway Drive and Eve 6. He was 42.

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Storper was the co-founder and CEO of Putumayo World Music, a record label that found success curating compliations of global music aimed at wider audiences. He was 74.

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Mayers co-founded Superfly Entertainment and co-created the Bonnaroo and Outside Lands music festivals. He was 51.

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The U.K.-based Stevens was an artist manager at First & Last Music and previously served as a manager and publicist at Darling Department. During his career, he worked with artists including The Killers, Justice and Fatboy Slim. He was 50.

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Jones was the co-founder and owner of Baby’s All Right, a popular Brooklyn venue that has hosted sets by SZA, Charli xcx, Blood Orange, David Byrne, Hot Chip, Jack White, Billie Eilish and more. He was 45.

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Kleinsinger, an attorney by trade, ran New York’s long-running concert series Highlights in Jazz, which ran for more than 50 years and 300 shows. He was 88.

Borchetta held roles at various labels, including Curb Records, Broken Bow, Capitol, RCA, Mercury and Rebel Engine, promoting music by artists such as Tim McGraw, The Beach Boys, Glen Campbell and Dusty Springfield. He was 84.

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Widelitz was a composer, songwriter and photographer best known for co-writing the Billboard Hot 100 No. 3 hit “She’s Like the Wind” alongside Patrick Swayze for the 1987 blockbuster film Dirty Dancing. He also scored films and wrote the end-credits song for Disney’s Pocahontas II. He was 69.

Lord Henry was an Irish aristocrat and concert promoter who transformed his Slane Castle into a premier outdoor concert venue that hosted such acts as Madonna, Oasis, U2 and The Rolling Stones beginning in the early 1980s. He was 74.

Lipsitz was a longtime employee at Bar/None Records, where he most recently served as label manager. Since joining the label in 2001, he worked with acts including Ivy, the Feelies and Oppenheimer. He was 61.

A music supervisor on American Idol for 15 seasons at the time of her death, Kaye also previously worked for Waylon Jennings, served as vp of artist development and broadcast media at MTM Records, and worked in licensing roles at MCA-Universal Records and PolyGram Records. In addition to Idol, she worked on shows including Lip Sync Battle, Hollywood Game Night and the NAACP Image Awards. She was 70.

Calandra was best known for his work as a talent booker for The Ed Sullivan Show, on which he helped book artists including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Doors. He was 91.

Bumstead was the co-founder of the entertainment business management firm FBMM, which was established in 1990. He previously served as CEO of JMR Investments and also served on the board of the Country Music Association, including as president in 2014 and chairman in 2015. He was 83.

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Ochs, who once managed the career of his younger brother Phil Ochs and worked as a photographer and publicity executive at Columbia Records, among other music companies, became best known as a photo archivist whose collection of more than three million photos, photo negatives and proof sheets charted the course of popular music history. He was 82.

Alongside his father, Frank Wood Sr., Wood launched Cincinnati jazz and classical radio station WEBN in 1967 before helping transform it into a successful rock station in later years. After selling the station to Jacor Communications in 1986, he served in leadership at Jacor before forming radio companies including Secret Communications and Broadcast Alchemy. He was 83.

Fein was best known as the host of Art Fein’s Poker Party, a public access TV show focused on music that drew guests including Brian Wilson, Etta James, Joe Strummer and Alison Krauss & Union Station. He was 79.

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The longtime music journalist started his career at Newsweek before joining Rolling Stone as its first assistant editor. After a brief stint at the upstart magazine, he went freelance and later wrote several music books; he also played in a folk duo alongside his wife, Ellen Mandel. He was 82.

Blackstock was a Nashville music manager at Starstruck Entertainment, founded by his father, Narvel Blackstock. During his career there, he helped manage the careers of Blake Shelton, Carly Pearce and Kelly Clarkson, to whom he was once married. He was 48.

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Hickerson was a folk singer-songwriter who served as the lead archivist for folk music at the Library of Congress for 25 years. He was 89.

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Sinclair co-founded and served as CEO at indie music finance platform beatBread, which he helped launch in 2020 following a long stint as senior vp of consumer and e-commerce at Universal Music Group. He was 50.

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The veteran label promotions executive worked in roles at Bang Records, Capricorn Records, Curb Records and DreamWorks Nashville, and helped develop the careers of artists including Lynyrd Skynyrd, Loretta Lynn, Kenny Chesney, Toby Keith, Tim McGraw and Wynonna Judd. He was also a partner at Tandem Promotions in the 1990s. Rockhill was 80.

Hein began her career as a member of an all-female pop group, The Beach Girls, before going behind the scenes as the studio operations manager at the Capitol Records tower in Los Angeles, where she worked with artists including Harry Belafonte, Barbra Streisand, Julie Andrews, Tina Turner, Kenny Rogers and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Later in her career, she worked as a production coordinator for artists and co-founded the independent label Little Dog Records, which was distributed by Polygram Records Nashville. She was 77.

Brown worked as an accountant and business manager for artists including Michael Jackson, George Michael, Neil Diamond and Stevie Nicks. He was 75.

The U.K.-based Glover, who managed such acts as Free, Mott the Hoople, Jim Capaldi and Paul Kossoff at his company Blueprint Management, was a founding member of the Music Managers Forum (MMF). As MMF chair, he established the British Music Roll of Honour in 1995, the precursor to the Artist & Manager Awards. He was 81.

Rubey was a veteran live entertainment executive who served in leadership roles at companies including Feyline Entertainment, AEG, PACE Management and Fathom Events, where he served as its first CEO. In 1992, he founded his own company, Spring Communications, where he worked through 2004. He was 73.

Martel was a prolific music video director who helmed clips for artists including Miley Cyrus, Mariah Carey, Robin Thicke, Beyoncé and more. She was 63.

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Dera was a longtime entertainment publicist who worked at firms including Levinson and Associates and Rogers & Cowan before establishing his own agency, Dera & Associates. Over the course of his career, he represented stars including Robert Palmer, David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with brands such as Dick Clark Productions and the American Music Awards, Gibson Guitar and Hard Rock Cafe. He was 74.

Zar was an attorney at Theo Sedlmayr & Associates whose clients included Post Malone and Pusha T. He was 36.

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Mull, who served as the first executive director of Country Radio Broadcasters (CRB), was a key force in shaping the Country Radio Seminar (CRS) and also managed Merle Haggard for a time.

A co-founder of Nu Groove Records, an influential label in New York’s underground house music scene, Burrell also worked as a producer, songwriter and artist alongside his twin brother, Rheji, with whom he released an album, Burrell, on Virgin Records. He was 59.

Rothman was a pioneering executive in the live music industry who once served as president and general manager of The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. On the music front, she helped turn the arena into a major concert stop, including by bringing Prince to the venue for a six-night stint in 1985. In 1995, she moved to Ticketmaster, where she was executive vp until 1999.

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Williams was the founder of early hip-hop label Cold Chillin’ Records, which was home to artists including MC Shan, Biz Markie, Big Daddy Kane and Marley Marl. Earlier in his career, he was the manager and business partner of radio DJ Mr. Magic, with whom he helped create the popular hip-hop radio program Mr. Magic’s Rap Attack on New York station WBLS.

With his creative partner Jeff Katz, Kasenetz was a hugely successful bubblegum music producer in the late 1960s, co-producing six million-selling singles between 1967 and 1968, including The Music Explosion’s “Little Bit o’ Soul” (No. 2); Ohio Express’ “Yummy Yummy Yummy” (No. 4); and 1910 Fruitgum Co.’s “Simon Says” (No. 4), “1,2,3 Red Light” (No. 5) and “Indian Giver” (No. 5). He was 82.

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Hauritz was the founder of the Australian Woodford Folk Festival, one of Australia’s largest and longest-running camp festivals that today draws roughly 120,000 guests and 2,000 artists. He was 71.

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Quintanilla was the father and manager of late Tejano music icon Selena. He helped steer her to stardom before she was shot and killed by her former fan club president, Yolanda Saldívar, in 1995. As a teenager, he was part of the vocal group the Dinos. He was 86.

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Sovine worked in the country music business for more than 40 years, the majority of them at BMI Nashville, where he rose to vp of writer/publisher relations. He was also a trustee at both the Country Music Foundation and the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS); at the latter, he served as president of its Nashville chapter for four terms. He was 82.

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Lippman was an artist manager, label executive and attorney who, by the mid-1970s, had risen to vp of West Coast operations at Arista Records under Clive Davis. As a manager, he guided the careers of clients including George Michael, Melissa Manchester, Matchbox Twenty and Bernie Taupin. He was 79.

Read the full obituary here.