N.L.'s Mary Beth Waldram is making her mark in the Canadian music industry
A break from playing music led to an unexpected career in another area of the industry
For Mary Beth Waldram of St. John's, a break from playing music led to an unexpected career in another area of the industry.
"I left music school and I put my clarinet in a closet and didn't look at it," she says.
But that hiatus from playing has not been a break from music. In that time, she has carved a unique niche for herself in the music industry and is now receiving Canada-wide recognition.
The 33-year-old artist manager and festival organizer racked up her most recent accolade when she received the 2023 East Coast Music Award for artist management of the year.
She had already been recognized by MusicNL in 2022 with an award for industry professional of the year. At the national level, she has been named a 2023 honoree by Women in Music Canada, a non-profit organization that promotes gender equity in the music industry.
Waldram says she "really didn't know anything" about what she was up for at the national event, where honorees included Shauna de Cartier of Six Shooter Records and singer/songwriter Fefe Dobson.
"I still haven't fully wrapped my head around it. I was in a room with some of the top female industry professionals in Canada, just a roomful of them. It was very wild, and I truly did not expect that I would go home with anything that night."
The back end of music
Waldram's entrepreneurial spirit is evident in the many ways she has forged her own path within an unpredictable industry, and most of her work has been in the service of other musicians.
"It's been a long process of trying different things out and figuring what works."
The Dartmouth native comes by her music industry achievements honestly. Before completing a degree in music theory and composition at Memorial University's school of music, she played saxophone and clarinet in the cadet band in her hometown. While attending university in St. John's, she played for two years in the Armed Forces Reserves band.
"I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do in the industry, so I was trying out a bunch of different things. I almost actually ended up doing live sound," she says.
She gained her first exposure to the inner workings of music performances when she was a student.
"I worked at the music school, worked all the shows, and I really enjoyed the back end."
Finding a niche in artist management
Studying music business at Nova Scotia Community College gave Waldram a vision of the possibilities for working within the industry. Since completing her studies, she has worked in various support and management capacities with N.L. bands like the Silver Wolf Band and Ouroboros.
In January, she assumed the role of production manager at artist management firm Laughing Heart Music, joining forces with the company's founder, Nigel Jenkins.
"It's everything that I have been doing but rolled into the company and having the support of someone else."
In fact, it was Jenkins who nominated her for the Women in Music Canada Honour Roll.
From artists to music festivals
In tandem with her management work, Waldram has built an impressive portfolio of music festivals — "I love artist management, but I also really love logistics at festivals," she says. This side of her career began while she was studying in Nova Scotia, where she volunteered with the Pop Explosion and the Atlantic Film Festival.
Currently, she's the artist director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Festival and has worked with the Lawnya Vawnya Festival for about a decade, most recently as logistics co-ordinator.
"I like now being able to do the two things. I don't have a huge roster of artists that I manage, specifically because then I can also do festival organization, which I really love as well as artist management."
Rational thinking and human connection
Her calm demeanour belies the energy required to build such a dynamic career. She seems to enjoy a balance of the rationality of festival logistics and the human connection of working intimately with artists.
"Both sides of the coin," says Waldram. "If you're doing logistics for a festival, you're dealing with 27 artists and 27 different needs. I think to be a great artist manager, you also need to have a really great logistics brain."
When Waldram is asked about her idea of success, she expresses it in terms of the artists she works with rather than her own individual achievements.
"I talk to a lot of artists all the time about career paths, and it's kind of your own personal definition of success."
She says she's thrilled to be revisiting her musical roots by picking up her clarinet again. Most recently, she performed with Nico Paulo at the Lawyna Vawnya Festival.
"It's been really nice getting to re-explore that side of who I am."
In the end, Waldram's goal is to build lasting professional relationships, she says.
"The thing with management is that there's generally no end date. I want to make sure that there's a really good connection between artist and manager, because you are, hopefully, in an ideal world, going to be working together for the rest of your lives."
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