Talented teen bands will perform onstage for our renowned panel of judges for the chance to win the 2018 title and a mix and mastered recording of their live performance from the event.

Our judges, veterans of the music industry, offer a great gift to the competing bands by contributing their insight and experience to help these young musicians develop. Meet our 2018 panel:

Lee Dannay has over twenty years experience in the music industry, including 15 years in A&R at Sony Music. While at Sony, Lee signed, developed and worked with a variety of artists including John Mayer, Shawn Mullins, Five For Fighting, Anna Nalick and General Public. Lee then moved on to become VP of A&R for Warner/Chappell Music, with a broad and celebrated roster that included Gary Louris of the Jayhawks, Brandi Carlile, Iron and Wine, Oscar winners Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova of The Swell Season, and others. Currently, Lee is President of GoodWorks Music, an artist development and consulting company, and is head of A&R for Thirty Tigers Entertainment Company, a Nashville based independent label.

Steve Addabbo is a Grammy nominated producer, musician, writer, recording engineer and owner of Shelter Island Sound Recording studio in NYC. Steve’s production and engineering work on Suzanne Vega’s first two albums set a new standard for the singer songwriter genre and helped pave the way for artists like Shawn Colvin, Tracy Chapman, and many others.  Suzanne’s second album, Solitude Standing, with the worldwide hits “Luka” and “Tom’s Diner” went multi-platinum. Steve also co-produced Shawn Colvin’s Grammy Award winning debut album, “Steady On.” Recent projects include mixing Bob Dylan’s Bootleg X, “Another Self Portrait”, unreleased recordings from 1970, recording Bobby McFerrin’s “SpiritYouAll”, Jeff Buckley’s “You and I”, mixing all 400 + tracks from the Grammy (2017) nominated Bob Dylan Bootleg 12, “The Cutting Edge”, Richard Barone’s newly released “Sorrows and Promises” and Steve’s own debut album, “Out of Nothing”. 

Dina Dessner grew up in White Plains and has been a radio presence in Westchester and Fairfield Counties for nearly 17 years, working on-air and behind the scenes. She is also a commercial voice actor, so you may not know her, but you've probably heard her voice! Dina has a passion for emerging music, and in January 2015, she developed and launched the 9:37 Local, a weekly feature on 107.1 The Peak to showcase unsigned local talent from the suburbs of NYC. The winner of tonight's Battle of the Bands will be introduced to Peak listeners when one of their songs is played on The 9:37 Local.

Barb Prisament is a music marketing professional who's been instrumental in developing such bands as Billy Bragg, 10,000 Maniacs, The Cure, Metallica, Duran Duran, Sinead O'Connor, Everclear, The Foo Fighters, Blind Melon, Bonnie Raitt, Radiohead, Richard Thompson, John Hiatt, and many others. She has a long history in the music industry, having worked at Chrysalis Records and Capitol Music Group. She was a music director and DJ at WLVR, and worked in marketing at Elektra Records and Chrysalis Records and as label director at Capitol Records. She is currently the co-organizer of the Take Me To The River Music Festival, the Downtown Advocate for Hastings-on-Hudson, and works as a Marketing Consultant in the Arts. Current clients are The Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, and RiverArts for whom she produces the annual Music Tour. 

Featuring:

Silas McAlister

500 Feedback

Lipsys

Solar Sound Band

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See what past winners and judges have to say: