Nancy Eckert’s bio:

Eckert is an entertainment attorney and founder of Verge Legal in Nashville, Tennessee. Nancy has over 25 years of experience in sports, entertainment, and corporate law including complex transactional work, artist/business development, brand marketing, intellectual property rights, licensing, publishing, and human resources. In addition to representing major label recording artists, award-winning songwriters, and hit producers, Nancy enjoys collaborating with independent music businesses with her focus on general management, consultation, business affairs, and legal representation for start-up music companies, record labels, and publishing ventures.

Nancy obtained her Juris Doctor degree, Magna Cum Laude, from Nova Southeastern University, and her undergraduate degree in public relations from the University of Miami, FL with honors. She is a member of the Entertainment and Sports Law Section of the TN Bar Association, SOURCE, the Academy of Country Music (ACM), the Country Music Association (CMA), and is licensed to practice law in Florida and Tennessee.

A representative list of current or past legal clients: Jason Aldean, Sevendust, Ty Herndon, Building 429, Jason Ingram, Saving Abel, CDX Nashville, AristoMedia, and Gwen Sebastian/Flying Island Entertainment.

JoAnn Berry’s bio:

Nashville is a melting pot for musicians trying to make it in the music industry and if they did make it, they probably know JoAnn Berry and World Class Talent. As CEO, JoAnn Berry has represented such lucrative careers as Barbara Mandrell, Randy Travis, Pat Boone and Ricky Skaggs. Through her hands-on, media saturation approach, JoAnn has not only helped build the careers of major artists, but has built one of the most well respected agencies in the business. From commercial endorsements and corporate sponsorships to extensive television exposure and literary development, JoAnn Berry can hand-tailor the surest and quickest route to success and her long client list of music industry heavyweights is proof of the magic she can work.

As a visionary representing the live entertainment market through her World Class Productions, or as a devoted and fiercely intuitive agent with the ability to turn a music dream into a household name, JoAnn Berry makes World Class Talent an industry force, and a musician’s key to breaking big.

JoAnn is presently managing Matt Rogers, a singer/ songwriter from Georgia.

Cassie Petty’s bio: 

Petty is the general manager of TKO Artist Management. Having been hired as the receptionist at TKO right out of college, she quickly grew into a larger role as the executive assistant to the owner/founder. Cassie then spent three years living in New York City working for media mogul Barry Diller at IAC. She returned to Nashville in 2010 and has been general manager at TKO ever since. In addition to managing the staff, she oversees day-to-day management for country music superstar and Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee Toby Keith, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Clay Walker, acclaimed rising country star Jackson Dean and The Bacon Brothers (Emmy award winning composer Michael Bacon and acclaimed actor Kevin Bacon). Cassie attended Belmont University where she majored in Music Business. She is a member of The Recording Academy, Country Music Association (CMA), Academy of Country Music (ACM), SOURCE Nashville, is a GRAMMY U mentor and has served on the Associate Board with the Nashville Symphony. She lives in Nashville, TN where she enjoys fostering dogs, aerial yoga, watching the New York Mets and reading.

Tanya Schrange’s bio:

Tanya Schrage is currently the Vice President of Marketing at Black River Entertainment, a company comprised of Black River Records, Black River Publishing and the state-of-the-art Sound Stage and Ronnie’s Place Studios.  The label roster includes Kelsea Ballerini, Ray Fulcher, Josiah Siska and MaRynn Taylor.

She joined the Black River family in 2015 after spending the first 20 years of her career among the labels under the Sony Music Nashville umbrella:  BNA, Columbia, Epic, Monument, Lucky Dog and RCA. In that time, she developed integrated marketing plans for a variety of artists including The (Dixie) Chicks, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Patty Loveless, Montgomery Gentry, Pistol Annies, Gretchen Wilson, Chris Young and more.

Tanya serves on David Lipscomb University’s College of Entertainment & the Arts Advisory Board and is a current member of the ACM, CMA and SOURCE.  She is a graduate of Leadership Music’s Class of 2022.  Tanya is originally from Newport News, VA but relocated to complete her education at Belmont University.  She currently resides in Lebanon, TN with her husband, Kyle and her 3 children who keep her busy with football, basketball, cheer and competitive dance.  The man of the house is their yellow lab, Saban.

Michele Williams Tristan’s bio:

Tristan began her musical career performing at ten years old and has been an international touring artist, an award-winning professional songwriter, the head of publishing at a Nashville-based artist management company, and the director of business relations at a music publishing & administration company with offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, and London.

As an international recording artist & songwriter, Michele went by the name “Misha Williams” and supported Girls Aloud on an arena tour in the UK, released an album with Japan’s largest independent label, Avex Group, and her original song, “Unexpectedly,” was the featured theme song in the Japanese movie, Strings.  She has performed at 100+ radio, press and television appearances throughout the UK and Japan.  Michele has been recognized in several major song competitions, and her songs have sold over a quarter of a million units worldwide.

Michele found her passion for publishing administration after being on tour and discovering the importance of the inner workings of the business behind the artists and songwriters.  She graduated from Belmont University in 2010 and transitioned into the business side, interning at Big Loud Bucks, and eventually becoming the Director of Publishing at TKO Artist Management.  In 2017, she joined the administration department at Big Deal Music Group (now Hipgnosis Songs Group) and became the Director, Business Relations, where she currently leads the client integration process for all incoming deal signings.