LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Recording Academy Headshots on June 09, 2021 in Los Angeles, California.
Courtesy of Recording Academy® Photograph Matt Winkelmeyer by Getty Photos© 2024
Panos A. Panay was two years previous in the course of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. “My first reminiscence is of my mom holding me and operating together with my sister to the basement subsequent door to flee the bombing of Turkish planes,” he remembers. “Rising up in postwar Cyprus—with shelters, refugees, meals shortages, households damaged, and the overall feeling of fixed insecurity—was a shaping occasion in my life.”
Since that tough interval in his childhood, Panay’s trajectory has taken a exceptional upward flip, catapulting him throughout the Atlantic into management positions in america. Early in his profession, he served as a expertise agent, together with for legendary performers like Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, and Chick Corea. After impactful stints in entrepreneurship and academia, Panay now serves as President of the Recording Academy, the group behind the GRAMMY Awards. He’s the primary individual born outdoors of the U.S. to carry that place.
Panay’s outlook was influenced by his father, who served as Minister of Inside and Chairman of the College of Cyprus, and his mom, who toiled practically half a century for the United Nations. “They gave me a way of one thing greater than myself,” he says, “a globalized view of the world, and a dedication to exhausting work and excessive requirements.”
The Journey Begins
Motion pictures performed a key function in shaping Panay’s emotions about music. After watching Elvis Presley in King Creole, he fell in love with rock and roll – and america. Later, watching the science fiction hit Again to the Future impressed Panay to choose up the guitar.
Actor and singer Elvis Presley options on a poster for the Paramount Photos film ‘King Creole’, … [+] 1958. (Photograph by Film Poster Picture Artwork/Getty Photos)
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At 15, the younger man set his thoughts on attending Berklee, the world’s largest unbiased school of latest music, after he noticed the varsity’s advert in Rolling Stone journal. 4 years later, he solely utilized to the celebrated Boston program – and he acquired in.
At first, Panay deliberate for a profession as knowledgeable musician, however that dream light. “Like many younger college students at Berklee, I suffered from imposter syndrome,” he says. Panay pivoted and accomplished a bachelor’s diploma in music enterprise/administration.
An Entrepreneurial Spirit
He parlayed his undergraduate research right into a place at Ted Kurland Associates, a Massachusetts-based expertise company representing a number of the world’s prime jazz musicians. Panay dealt with the worldwide excursions of performers like Pat Metheny and Sonny Rollins.
After which got here a brand new millennium. The 12 months 2000 marked the decline within the significance of compact discs and the rise of digital distribution companies like Napster. Panay needed to be on the successful facet of the huge business upheaval. “Trying again at my profession, I’ve all the time been devoted to enabling expertise to precise itself, to meaningfully join with audiences, and to have their music resonate with individuals,” he displays. Understanding of his residence, Panay based Sonicbids, a startup which enabled artists to attach on-line with music promoters. His efforts swiftly gained traction. “Over one million gigs occurred by way of the location,” Panay says.
However the platform was greater than only a reserving gadget; it created a neighborhood for musicians, serving to them navigate the complexities of the business. Ralph Jaccodine, Assistant Professor of Music Enterprise/Administration at Berklee Faculty of Music, has identified Panay since his early tech days. “Sonicbids improved the lives of musicians and their managers by simplifying entry to a number of the prime festivals, venues and promoters,” he says. “As a result of Panos knew the ache factors of musicians, he got here up with a sensible resolution.”
Panay served as CEO for over a decade till its acquisition, rising the corporate into a worldwide model holding unique partnerships with organizations like South By Southwest (SXSW). The younger Greek American immigrant had risen to grow to be generally known as a music enterprise visionary.
BOSTON – JUNE 11: Panos Panay, Founding Managing Director, BerkleeICE (Institute for Inventive … [+] Entrepreneurship), poses in Bosotn on June 11, 2016. (Photograph by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe through Getty Photos)
Boston Globe through Getty Photos
Main Inventive Entrepreneurship
On the finish of 2013, Panay returned to his alma mater to spearhead the Berklee Institute for Inventive Entrepreneurship (BerkleeICE). Because the founder and managing director, he targeted on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship amongst college students and oversaw its expansions into the United Arab Emirates, Spain, China, and a brand new U.S location in New York Metropolis. Panay noticed that the way forward for the music business lay within the palms of inventive entrepreneurs who may harness know-how.
“In the present day’s music college students are feeling the inexorable pull of know-how because it attracts them away from purely inventive work into the world of gadgets and software program and artificial sound,” says Boston College professor emeritus Peter Marton. Marton delivers particular lectures at Berklee and mentors various the faculty’s college students annually. “Panos acknowledged the necessity to put together the following technology of musicians for the realities of a troublesome and demanding enterprise the place musicianship is susceptible to being changed, to a point, by enterprise technique and technical acumen.”
Below Panay’s hand, BerkleeICE turned a hub for aspiring music entrepreneurs, offering them with the assets, mentorship, and alternatives to develop their concepts.
A New Period: The Recording Academy
In June 2021, Panay took on a brand new problem because the President of the Recording Academy. His appointment got here at a pivotal time for the Academy and its GRAMMY Awards, each of which have been addressing points associated to range, fairness, and inclusion. “Expertise is in every single place, alternative isn’t,” says Panay. “The Academy, with its platform and renown, is in place to grow to be the main international advocate for all creators, irrespective of the language they communicate, the passport they carry, the music they create, the faith they imagine in, or the place they dwell.”
Panay’s imaginative and prescient for the Recording Academy focuses on inclusivity, transparency, and artist advocacy. “What I really like about this group is that it’s your personal friends figuring out who’s worthy of a nomination and, finally, who is chosen,” Panay says. “Since our CEO, Harvey Mason Jr., and I joined the Academy, we have been intentional in diversifying its membership when it comes to race, gender, and ethnicity. And that is an ongoing course of.”
WASHINGTON, DC – APRIL 26: (L-R) Panos A. Panay, President of the Recording Academy, Tarriona … [+] “Tank” Ball, Congressional Honoree Senator Invoice Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) and Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy pose for a photograph throughout Grammys On The Hill: Awards Dinner at The Hamilton on April 26, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photograph by Paul Morigi/Getty Photos for The Recording Academy)
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A Legacy of Management
Panay’s management model is characterised by his hands-on strategy, his capability to encourage these round him, and his unwavering dedication to excellence.
Berklee Professor Jaccodine remembers becoming a member of Panay within the Music Enterprise/Administration college conferences. “He was all the time a step or two in entrance of most individuals within the music business — and no matter room he was in. Panos’ thoughts is sharp, his view is international, and he leads along with his coronary heart, along with his love of music and the musicians who create it.”
