Heather Kitching.com





About me

 My goal as a publicist is to help outstanding artists in "non commercial" genres get the recognition they deserve.  To this task, I bring 18 years of music industry and media experience, a love of innovative roots, world and pop music, a commitment to social justice and a passion for telling stories through the media. I'm conversantly bilingual and experienced working with media in all regions of Canada. 

For almost a decade, I was the National Sales and Marketing Coordinator and in-house publicist at Festival Distribution, Canada’s independent distributor of roots world and jazz music. There, I had the privilege of providing publicity services for many leading roots, world, jazz and pop artists including Juno Award winners, The Wailin’ Jennys, David Francey, Kiran Ahluwalia and James Keelaghan; renowned Malian musician, Rokia Traore and Canadian alt.pop icon, Jane Siberry. I also provided occasional publicity assistance to Ani DiFranco, the Del McCoury Band, Ricky Skaggs and Tom Russell.

Since setting up my independent publicity business in 2005, I have continued to work with some of the most exciting Canadian and international artists in these genres – both established and up-and-coming.  Among them, the Arrogant Worms, Veda Hille, Maryem Tollar, Juno Award winner AlexCuba, WCMA winner Joel Fafard and  FOLQUEBEC Lifetime Acheivement Award winner Penny Lang. I am also proud once again this year to be the publicist for the Canadian Folk Music Awards.

In addition to my music industry work, I have a history of social justice activism and have contributed my publicity and PR skills to several organizations dealing with human rights, access to information issues and HIV/AIDS.  I appreciate the political and social commentary that forms part of many artists’ work and I bring this sensitivity to my work on their behalf.

Other services:

Marketing plan development for album releases and tours:

As the Sales and Marketing Coordinator at Festival Distribution and its label, Jericho Beach Music, I designed and implemented Canadian marketing plans for projects by Ani DiFranco, Stan Rogers, Ricky Skaggs, the Arrogant Worms and dozens of other artists.  Over the years, I have become familiar will all of the advertising, promotion and retail program options accessible to indie artists in Canada and I have come to know how to get the most impact for limited marketing dollars. 

Grant writing:

In addition to my background in sales, marketing and publicity, I'm experienced at writing funding applications for FACTOR, MITAP and the Canada Council for the Arts.  I've written and contributed to numerous successful applications and I know how to highlight the elements of an artist's project that speak most clearly to the mandates of these programs.  Plus, having served on numerous FACTOR and MITAP juries, I've seen these competitions from "the other side" and know how to do what it takes to stand out from the crowd.