Bernd Skibbe

Bernd Skibbe, born 1958 in Hamburg/Germany, made his first steps into the music business in the early 80s as a jazz radio dj at one of Germanies biggest public radio stations, NDR. Since 1987 he spent ten years as a member of the executive marketing team of Warner Music Germany followed by two years during which he played a decisive role in the successes garnered by the jazz label Minor Music, concentrating on A & R aspects of the German indie.

In 1999 he co – founded Skip Records, a Hamburg based label representing high quality artists from various genres as jazz, world music, folk, r & b and pop, and Skip Sounds, the publishing leg of the label.

Skip Records today is one of the leading independent labels in Germany and was 2005 voted as one of the ten most sophisticated jazz labels in Europe by the American All About Jazz Online-Magazine.

Erich R. Ludwig

Erich R. Ludwig is the Chief Operations Officer of Calabash Music. Both a life-long activist and musician, Erich has brought his passion  for travel and music into an arena where he promotes equity and  empowerment of musicians from around the world.

As the founder of WADaBo (the West African Dance in Boston collective) and Baden'ya Productions (an artist management agency), Erich has worked with, managed, and  promoted artists from across Africa and North America.

He has traveled  extensively in West Africa, South Africa, Europe, the Pacific Islands,  and the Americas pursuing innovative music, while working to contribute  to, and create a world-music market directed by the artists themselves.

Erich R. Ludwig
COO, Head of Artist & Partner Relations

Wolfgang König

Wolfgang König (48) has a diploma in economics and 20 years of experience as a music journalist, musician and PR man for festivals and record companies.

His interest in South African music started in 1984 when he joined a band of ANC exiles in Berlin as a bass player.

Since 1993, he has worked as a world music journalist for newspapers, magazines and the AfroPop Worldwide website, but mainly for Radio Multikulti in Berlin as well as other stations in Germany and Canada .

He is co-founder of SouthPool, an agency for the promotion of South African music in Europe.

Andrew Missingham

Andrew Missingham is an independent creative consultant working on a wide variety of music projects that inspire him. His current activities range from curating the Black Atlantic exhibition, now on display at New York's Studio Museum Harlem to an in-depth report for the British Musicians' Union and Academy of Composers and Songwriters exploring the Status of music creators in the creative economy, which will be presented to the UK parliament in October 2006.

Until January 2006, he was director of the arts consultancy and event producer ‘the hub' that he set up in 2002. This company brought together the breadth of Andrew's experience gained from having seen the arts world from a wide variety of perspectives.