Pamela Williams Joins BMIF Board; Jenny Undercofler, Nina Young & Nari Matsuura Join Advisory Panel
Pictured: (L-R)
Top Row: Pamela Williams, Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs and Corporate Secretary for Broadcast Music, Inc; Dr. Jennifer Undercofler, Director of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase University.
Bottom Row: Nina Young, composer and Assistant Professor of Music Composition at University of Texas at Austin; Nari Matsuura, Partner at Massarsky Consulting.
The BMI Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the creation, performance and study of music, elected Pamela Williams, Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs and Corporate Secretary for Broadcast Music, Inc., to its Board of Trustees during a recent meeting at the Foundation’s New York office. In addition, Dr. Jennifer Undercofler, Associate Professor of Practice in Music and Director of the Conservatory at Purchase College (SUNY), along with Nina Young, composer and Assistant Professor of Music Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, and Nari Matsuura, Partner at Massarsky Consulting, were announced as the newest advisors on the BMI Foundation Artistic Advisory Panel.
“We are pleased to welcome these talented women to our Board and to the artistic leadership of our organization,” said BMI Foundation President Deirdre Chadwick. “They bring a collective wealth of knowledge, experience and passion that will be instrumental in furthering the exciting and transformative work we are privileged to do in support of music education and emerging artists and songwriters nationwide.”
Pamela Williams
Pamela Williams is Vice President, Legal & Business Affairs and Corporate Secretary for Broadcast Music, Inc. In her capacity as Vice President, Legal & Business Affairs, Williams oversees a wide variety of legal work for BMI. She manages infringement and arbitration processes; supports licensing efforts by negotiating and drafting individual and industry-wide licenses with media licensees, including cable networks and systems, satellite, pay-per-view and VOD, as well as BMI’s “general” licenses for individual license markets and venues, including restaurants, hotels, fitness centers, background music services, symphony orchestras, major league sports teams, and concert promoters; and manages the Company’s state legislative matters. In addition, she also serves as Corporate Secretary for the BMI Board of Directors.
Williams joined BMI in October 2000 as Director in the Business Affairs division of the Licensing department. She was promoted to Senior Director in 2004, to Executive Director in 2008, and to Assistant Vice President in 2009. Williams was appointed Corporate Secretary in 2011, and was promoted to Vice President in 2014. In 2017, Williams transferred from BMI’s Licensing department to the Legal department to further support the legal functions of the Company. Prior to joining BMI, Williams worked as an attorney in the Litigation practice of the Legal Department at Time Warner Inc. where she handled a variety of litigation matters for Time Warner, the Warner Music Group, and the Six Flags theme parks. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Mount Holyoke College, and her Juris Doctor from Albany Law School of Union University.
Williams is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the District of Columbia Bar Association. She is also a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Women in Music.
Jennifer Undercofler
Dr. Jenny Undercofler is Director of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College. She joined the Purchase faculty as Associate Professor of the Practice of Music in 2016. From 2004 until 2016, Dr. Undercofler served as the Music Director of the Special Music School (PS 859), spearheading the development and opening of its high school division. During the same period. she also founded and conducted Face the Music, a groundbreaking teen new music ensemble. Under her artistic and administrative leadership, Face the Music collaborated with professional groups including the JACK Quartet, Gutbucket, and the Kronos Quartet, performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, and the Bang On A Can Marathon, and received feature coverage in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. Dr. Undercofler has served on the faculties of Juilliard Pre-College, Queens College, the Mannes Preparatory Division, and Third Street Music School Settlement. She holds two degrees in piano performance from the Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music.
Nina Young
New York-based composer Nina C. Young (b.1984) writes music characterized by an acute sensitivity to tone color, manifested in aural images of vibrant, arresting immediacy. Young’s works have been presented by leading cultural institutions such as Carnegie Hall, the National Gallery, the Whitney, LA Phil’s Next on Grand and Noon to Midnight, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series.
Winner of numerous awards, prizes and honors, her music has garnered international acclaim through performances by the American Composers Orchestra, Inscape Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, Orkest de ereprijs, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Argento Chamber Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Either/Or, the JACK Quartet, mise-en, Scharoun Ensemble, Sixtrum, SurPlus, wild Up, and Yarn/Wire.
Recent commissions include Tête-a-Tête for two toy pianos, deskbells, and video projection for the HOCKET Ensemble supported by the LA Phil, a violin concerto for Jennifer Koh, a community sound installation and performance for Miller Theatre’s Morningside Lights Processional Arts Workshop, a duo work for cellist Jay Campbell and pianist Conor Hanick supported by the Fromm Music Foundation, a solo guitar piece for Jiji Kim supported by Concert Artists Guild and the BMI Foundation, a new work for the PRISM quartet, a new work for the American Brass Quintet and EMPAC’s wavefield synthesis audio system, and a work for solo snare drum and transducers for percussionist Mike Compitello.
A graduate of McGill and MIT, Young completed her DMA at Columbia University where she was an active participant at the Columbia Computer Music Center. She is an Assistant Professor of Composition and Director of Electronic Music at the Butler School of Music (UT Austin), and a Visiting Composer at the Peabody Institute. Young also serves as Co-Artistic Director of NY-based new music sinfonietta Ensemble Échappé and a visiting artist at Arts Letters & Numbers. Peermusic Classical publishes her compositions.
Nari Matsuura
As Partner at Massarsky Consulting, Nari Matsuura leads the valuation practice of the firm, and has conducted music asset valuations of music publishers, record companies, artist and songwriter catalogs, including Andreas Carlsson, Benny Blanco, Big Loud Shirt, Boosey & Hawkes, Bush, Carlin Music, CeeLo Green, Downtown Records, Downtown Music Publishing, Eddie Holland, Glenn Gould, Linda Perry, Marvin Hamlisch, peermusic, Primary Wave, Reservoir Media Management, Rogers and Hammerstein, Round Hill Music, Rush, Ryan Tedder, Smokey Robinson, SONGS, Spirit Music Group, The Offspring, and many more. In addition, since joining the firm in 2001 she has been a consultant to a number of music companies including Universal Music Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, the RIAA, among many others.
Matsuura holds an MBA from Cornell University, as well as a Master's and Bachelor's of Music from The Juilliard School. Before pursuing her MBA, she was a concert pianist, recognized for her performances in major venues in North America and Asia.
About the BMI Foundation
The BMI Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1985 to encourage the creation, performance, and study of American music. The Foundation’s programs include competitive scholarships for songwriters and composers, operating grants for nonprofit arts presenters, and support for innovative music education initiatives in schools and communities across the country. For more information about the work of the Foundation, please visit our website at www.bmifoundation.org. For exclusive news and content, follow @bmifoundation on Twitter and Instagram, and like “BMI Foundation” on Facebook at facebook.com/bmifoundation.