Leadership Music Presents Music Industry Icon Clive Davis

Leadership Music will host iconic music legend Clive Davis in an exclusive, invitation-only event Tuesday, March 14^th in the CMA Theater at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.  Presented by City National Bank and Sony Music Nashville, Mr. Davis will serve as the featured speaker for Leadership Music’s Record Company program day.   Throughout the 90-minute session, Mr. Davis will share insights and reflections from his multi-decade career at the top of the music business during which he has shaped the sound, look and cultural impact of contemporary music.  In celebration of Mr. Davis’ visit to Nashville, the Leadership Music planning committee is opening Mr. Davis’ portion of the event to Leadership Music alumni, special guests, members of select music industry organizations and local college students.  Mr. Davis is the subject of a new documentary film Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, which will have its world premiere on opening night of the Tribeca Film Festival at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday, April 19.   Davis will also screen a trailer from the film for those attending the Leadership Music event on March 14.  Based on Davis’ 2013 autobiography, The Soundtrack of My Life – which spent 10 weeks atop the New York Times Bestseller List — the film is a fascinating story of courage, resilience, talent and an unwavering commitment to excellence.  These qualities drove Davis – a child of early 20^th Century working-class Brooklyn who lost both parents while a teenager – to full academic scholarships to New York University and Harvard Law School and a brief but impactful stint as a white-shoe lawyer.  His unrelenting drive to be the best, a twist of fate and the discovery that he had “Ears” for hit music, led Davis to assume the presidency of Columbia Records at just 35 years of age, discover Janis Joplin at the Monterey Pop Festival shortly thereafter and command a career that has created the soundtrack for three generations of American culture.  Davis has signed, influenced or played an important role in the careers of many of the most important music artists of the 20^th and 21^st Centuries.   These include: Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Whitney Houston, Santana, Aretha Franklin, Aerosmith, Simon & Garfunkel, Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, Billy Joel, Earth Wind & Fire, Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Alicia Keys, Jennifer Hudson, Rod Stewart, Sean “Puffy” Combs, The Kinks, The Grateful Dead and The Eurythmics.  Davis opened Arista Nashville with Tim DuBois in 1988.  The stellar roster would include Alan Jackson, Brooks & Dunn, Diamond Rio, Pam Tillis and Brad Paisley.   In 2000, Clive was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he was the recipient of the Trustees Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy. In 2002, he established the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University.  In 2008, he was appointed Chief Creative Officer for all of Sony Music Entertainment.  His annual Pre-Grammy Gala, which just turned 40, is always the hottest ticket of the year, drawing the biggest stars across music, film, television, industry and politics as well as business leaders and glitterati from around the world. Davis will be interviewed by Julie Swidler, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs & General Counsel, Sony Music Entertainment.  Repeatedly featured in Billboard’s Women in Music and Power 100 lists, Julie was the first female and first label executive to receive the Grammy Foundation’s ELI Service Award in 2016.