BIO
Years of experience in just about every aspect of the business have made Kirby a highly respected name in western Canada's entertainment industry. She has done it all as a talent buyer, event planner, manager, sound engineer, publicist, agent, music journalist and talent buyer. Her talents have earned numerous awards and respect that goes far beyond her hometown of Edmonton.
For the past 17 years Kirby has owned and operated Ramparts Entertainment, which provides a wide range of services including management, booking, publicity, promotions, consulting, instruction, as well as preparing grant applications, proposals, marketing plans, business plans and bios.
After less than a year in business the Alberta Recording Industry Association nominated her for two awards. When Kirby booked some of Edmonton's major music local venues including The Sidetrack Café, she won both the ARIA Awards for Promoter/Talent Buyer and the Prairie Music Awards for Talent Buyer/Booking Agent of the year.
Prairie Music Alliance hired Kirby for its 2001 festival coordinator in Edmonton, she regularly works for Canada Country Music Association when the CCMAs are in Edmonton, and she was the co-producer and production manager for JUNOFest 04, worked on the 2008 WCMAs and SOS Fest 2011.
Kirby was a co-founder of the EMF (Edmonton Manager's Forum), an independent version of The International Managers Forum that acted as a networking and information sharing co-operative.
She is a sought after juror by many arts associations (FACTOR, AMIA, AFA, Canada Council, AATA, etc) and has spoken on many conference panels such as Indie Weekends, Prairie Music Week, Vancouver's New Music West and Music Alberta. Kirby has instructed in "This Business of Music" at Grant MacEwan University; as well she sits on the GMU Arts and Cultural Management Advisory Committee; and is a Board Member of The Alberta Arts Touring Alliance.
Her first experiences in the music business were road managing and live sound engineering. Kirby is considered as one of the best live sound engineers in Alberta, and she continues to mix on a freelance basis.
Kirby was the Edmonton columnist for Music Express Magazine (a Toronto publication) for years and she then went on to write features for Vue Weekly. After years of doing a rock column, cover stories, and CD reviews for Culture Shock magazine, Kirby moved over to Edmonton's See Magazine for nearly six years, where she had a weekly "Sounding Off" column. She has written for many other publications such as Real Estate Weekly, Our Voice, Cameo, The Riverdalian, Alberta Views, the Edmonton Sun website and Muse Alberta.
