Anu Omideyi: POWER UP Industry Professional
Short Bio: Having switched careers from a criminal barrister to full-time music 10 years ago, Anu has been working to advocate for and develop the Gospel Music industry ever since. Along with her different hairstyles (!!) she wears different hats: from one hat as the Director of a National Gospel Music Centre and the Liverpool Gospel Music Festival (LGMF), both powered by Liverpool Lighthouse, to another hat as the Co-Chair of the Gospel Music Industry Alliance (GMIA), a national umbrella organisation for gospel musicians across the country, to yet another hat as the creator of the Gospel Music into Schools programme published nationally via Rockschool (RSL). She hopes the evidence is clear to any music “jury” that she loves Gospel Music and is working hard to bring the genre and mainstream life together! LGMF is the UK’s first and biggest mainstream Gospel Music festival, attracting thousands in audiences from a wide range of ethnicities, faiths, no faiths, and backgrounds. Regarding music education, as well as the schools’ programme mentioned above, within GMIA she was pivotal in developing the UK’s – and maybe the world’s – first ever Graded Gospel Music Exams (starting with Grades 6-8 in vocals) in conjunction with RSL. All this work combined has attracted international attention, leading to invitations, opportunities and significant on-going work to build global highways between Africa, USA and the UK. She is a choir director, music director, vocal coach, singer songwriter and musician (piano/keyboards).
Concise Description of activity: I’ll enhance my professional skills, increase my visibility in the mainstream music industry and build my network, through marketing, promotion, R&D and capacity support.