The Team
Harry Leckstein
Harry Leckstein founded Freeport in 2003 after working in the music industry for more than 15 years. Harry lectures in music campaign management and digital music marketing at City University and will direct each Urban Collective project and teach music campaign management during training week.
Resin
Resin has been producing music for the past eight years and has worked with Gemma Fox, Shola Ama, Skinnyman, JME, Metal, Lady Lykez and many more. He has produced Grime, Hip Hop., Pop, Rock, House and Acoustic genres from London to Atlanta and all points in between. Resin will oversee the recording and thematic structure of each project on British Urban Collective and will also teach audition production techniques.
Michaela Betts
Michaela Betts is an experienced and versatile vocal coach, pianist, session singer and songwriter with an array of film, TV and recording credits to her name including: The Nutcracker: The Untold Story lyrics by Tim Rice , starring John Turturro, Nathan Lane and Elle Fanning, the award-winning feature film Slipstream starring Sean Astin & Vinnie Jones, Teknolust starring Tilda Swinton, Just Cause computer game title for Eidos and Coca-Cola’s ‘The Future’ advertising campaign.
As a vocal coach she teaches in an holistic way fusing classical fluidity with modern vibes, physicality and Alexander Technique. She aims to ‘unlock’ and reveal the voice as a whole rather than to train and isolate it. She has taught an impressive roster of professional singers many of whom are currently performing in West End, TV and touring productions of Wicked, Hairspray, Britannia High, We Will Rock You, Flash Dance, Dirty Dancing, Little Shop of Horrors, A Little Night Music, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Mama Mia! and Disney Tokyo to name a few. As a singer Michaela has recorded albums with the critically accliamed TheGhostOrchestra and has recently released a single ‘Miss U Bad’ with the Mike White Presents dance music collective.
Yap
Lead singer songwriter of acclaimed rap metal band One Minute Silence and the polemic Pink Punk, Yap has sold more than a quarter of a million albums world wide and toured with Rage Against The Machine, Tool and Slipknot.
His inspirational and practical writing classes allow anyone to pick up a pen and paper and create. Through stimulating and original short writing exercises Yap focuses on stream of consciousness, word triggers, improvisation, emotion and underlying meaning.
Sam Brown
Sam Brown is known for her expressive vocal style, and the ability to transcend musical styles easily. Her best-known song was “Stop!”, released in 1988; she released an album by the same name that year. Other singles taken from this album included “Walking Back To Me” and “This Feeling”. The album Stop! sold over two million copies worldwide.
As well as her solo career, she has had a successful career as a backing vocalist and collaborating with other artists. She has worked with David Gilmour and Pink Floyd, Deep Purple (Live at the Royal Albert Hall), George Harrison, Nick Cave and many others; and often appears as a member of Jools Holland’s band. In 2003 she teamed up with Dave Rotheray of the British band, The Beautiful South to form the “side-project”, Homespun. The band have so far released two albums, on independent labels Classic Records and Musicvision. Sam is also a patron of Tech Music Schools in London, made up of Vocaltech, Guitar-X and Drumtech.
Danusia Zaremba
As a vocal and performance coach Danusia believes in quality, integrity, honesty and tactfulness-above everything! Clients have included artists “Dogs die in Hot Cars”,(V2 Records) “Chocolate Monday” Cameron Stout (winner of Big Brother) and Julyan Sinclair, for Grampian T.V. show “ You have to do this!”, Jade Lezar and Laura McMonagle from BBC1 “River City” as “the City Chix” and recently “X Factor” studios. Local Artist clients include – Sindustry, Kobai, L-Marie, Carly Connor,Tamika’s Treehouse.
As a session vocalist Danusia has recorded and toured internationally with Frankie Miller, Carol Kidd, John Martyn, Hue & Cry, Horse, Texas, Hipsway, Deacon Blue, Donnie Munroe, Craig Armstrong, 911, China Crisis, Lulu, Horse, Elaine C. Smith and Jazz Trio performances to name but a few….
Kele Le Roc
Kele Le Roc’s musical odyssey began when she was 3 with singing and dancing lessons. Whilst still in primary school, Kele landed a lucrative poster campaign for Smarties. When she was 14 she started her recording career. In 1996, she had her first commercially released record – an underground two-step soul smash ‘Let Me know’, produced by Best Kept Secret. In 1997 Kele signed to First Avenue Records, who in turn sign her to Wildcard/Polydor. Her first single ‘Little Bit Of Lovin’’ reached top ten in the national charts. Her second single in 1998, ‘My Love’ also reached the top ten. Her TV appearances included ‘Des O’Connor Tonight’, ‘Top Of The Pops’, ‘CD UK’, ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks’, ‘A Question Of Pop’, ‘SM TV’ ‘The Big Breakfast’ and ‘Fully Booked’. In 1999 picked up two MOBO awards – ‘Best Single’ and ‘Best Newcomer’. She became a presenter of Channel 4’s urban music programme ‘Flava’. She has done two collaborations with Basement Jaxx – some vocals on their album and two singles ‘Romeo’ and ‘Feelin U’ with Shy FX.
“myspace.com/kelelerocmusic ":http://www.myspace.com/kelelerocmusic
Diane Meyer
Diane Meyer aka Free Radikal is a singer, poet, writer, actress and artist manager. Diane works as an actress in radio, theatre and film, as a music and fashion television presenter and is currently working on a music documentary. She has had several music releases and collaborations with prominent producers across various genres, including hip hop, house, dance, neo soul and electro/pop. She has worked extensively as a music journalist in the UK and USA, is a partner in artist management company JohnsonMeyer Management and co- founder of The Pondering Goddess Theatre Group – a community-based grassroots organisation providing performance art workshops for disadvantaged children and young adults. Diane has been the acting and performance coach on British Urban Collective since 2007.