Davide Ruffini has been connected to Wisseloord for years as mixing engineer. He has worked with names as The Voice, Soul & Noamle, Supa Dupa, NAVY, Nelson Dialect, Leelo, MAJAN, Kilian & Jo.
Career Development
James Castelijn
In 2012, James joined the DJ collective BANGANAGANGBANGERS, focusing on producing and releasing their own work. Strongly inspired by artists like Noisia, Eprom, Hudson Mohawk, Ivy Lab, G Jones & Joker, they immersed themselves in the world of underground bass, (half-time) DnB, and glitch hop. Despite operating in a niche market, the energy of both the music and the DJ act brought the collective to stages such as Mysteryland, We Are Electric, Woo Hah, Melkweg, Solar Festival, ADE (own event), and many more.
After completing his private study in Audio & Studio Engineering at the Volver Academy in Tilburg in 2013, James began his studies at the Herman Brood Academy in 2015. Here, he connected with rappers who asked him to handle the mixing and mastering of their songs, marking the official start of his career as a mixing and mastering engineer. Following his graduation in 2017, demand and workload increased, quickly adding major Dutch Urban names like Henkie T, Snelle, Young Ellens, Latifah, Kimono, Chivv, Defano, Numidia, and record labels such as Quatro Vision, Trifecta, Avalon Music, and Rotterdam Airlines to his credit list.
Since 2017, James has also been involved in the development of Wisseloord Studio’s House of Music and Wisseloord Publishing in Hilversum. In 2020, James took on the role of both Mastering Engineer at this facility and A&R Manager of the House of Music and Wisseloord Publishing, a collaboration between BMG BNLX and Wisseloord. As the A&R manager of the Wisseloord Publishing, James has been involved with organizing numerous international writing camps and has been responsible to connect both national and international writers.
Noah Smits
Noah is one of the most recognized music marketeers and data analysts of The Netherlands. Working as consultant for numerous artists and labels, Noah is one of the figures of the field that cannot be missed out.
Bastien Corné
Bastien Corné is a musician, composer and music teacher. He obtained a master’s degree in musicology at Paris Sorbonne and a bachelor’s degree in jazz performance at the University of Montreal. He currently performs on stage with artists like Coco Bans or Le Noiseur.
Mahaut Dufour Lamanthe
Mahaut Dufour Lamanthe started out in the music industry in 2016, looking to work alongside artists. She soon founded Loom, offering management services for artists (Sika Deva, BlackDoe, Tices). As a champion of diverse, ambitious projects (English-speaking rappers, producers, an album with K-pop acts), she has all the key tools for creating successful projects. Her next step was evident: embark on freelance project management assignments for independent record labels and studio complexes. She also advocates change for women in the music industry, working actively with the Change de Disque initiative and being part of the 2022 MEWEM promotion.
Rogier Bol
Rogier Bol has more than 15 years experience working in the music industry as marketeer and project manager setting up strategies and release plans for singles, EPs and full length albums locally and internationally, digitally and physically.
Rogier works for and with the majors like Universal Music and indie labels like Fully Charged. He also works for artists from Billie Eilish to Inge van Calkar across all genres. His own company Stroomlijn (Streamline in Dutch) is a service label and marketing and promotion company helping artist to streamline their releases and dreams.
Jim van Kooten
As head of program at venue De Vorstin in Hilversum, Jim is always closely involved with the live music world. He works with upcoming talent as well as the big international names. He developed the upcoming talent platform ‘Patat Met’, a monthly live platform to showcase the best new and upcoming artist from The Netherlands. Besides working as a promoter, Jim is also co-founder of the booking agency ‘Atlas Agency’, a company that books tours for in the BeNeLux for Americana/Roots artists from mostly the USA and UK.
Chiara Gallerani
Chiara Gallerani is Italia Music Export’s project manager. Before working at Italia Music Export she was head of marketing and promotion at Indipendente Concerti (Live Nation Italia) which organized, among many concerts, I-Days Festival. From 2015 to 2016 she was marketing and promotion assistant at Vivo Concerti, a music promoter company in Milan. From 2015 to 2022, she also worked as artists liaison manager at MI AMI Festival, the popular Italian independent music festival held in Milan every year in spring.
From 2020 to 2022 she was the communication manager for EMEE, European Music Exporters Exchange, the network gathering all music export offices in Europe.
Chiara has a bachelor’s degree in Foreign Languages and Literature and a master’s degree in Design and Production of Cultural and Arts events.
Kertu Mägar
Kertu Mägar is running an independent publishing company FAAR Music, which represents Baltic and Nordic songwriters/producers, helping them with all the aspects of their projects.
FAAR Music works globally and their roster includes many established and well-known Estonian pop music makers as well as new upcoming talent. At FAAR, Kertu takes care of international relations and partnerships, contracts & administration, and manages the creative department.
Prior to her role in FAAR Music, Kertu worked in the music industry in various roles, incl. PR & Marketing Manager for Dutch electronic label Future House Music, artist manager for electronic artists signed to her own management company and event producer of Estonia’s biggest young artists competition.
Kertu has a Bachelor’s Degree in Music & Choir Conducting and a Master’s Degree in Art Management.
Vallo Kikas
Vallo Kikas has produced, mixed and mastered over the years for a variety of award-winning Estonian artists such as Karl-Erik Taukar, Liis Lemsalu, Elina Born and nublu. This year, he was nominated in the mixing/mastering/recording category at the Estonian Music Industry Awards.
Vallo is part of electronic music duo ‘Kisma’, whose most popular song ‘Fingertips’ has over 11 million streams on Spotify and over 21 million views on Youtube. In 2019, Vallo co-wrote the topline for Syn Cole’s track ‘Discovery’, which was released by Martin Garrix’s record label STMPD RCRDS. In Spring 2021 he co-wrote and produced ‘Doomino’ by Liis Lemsalu and Stefan, which became number one played on Estonian radios for the whole summer.