About Us

Harry Leckstein
Founder, Managing Director

Harry is the managing director of Freeport Records and the founder of the Urban Collective project. Over the past 20 years he has worked in the music and entertainment business and created many after-hours nightclubs in the 1990’s including Gaia in Bristol and Divine Culture in Los Angeles.

In 1999, Harry graduated from Imperial College London with an MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He went on to join an Internet development agency and oversaw the company’s music and entertainment strategy until its PLC acquisition in 2001.

Harry then formed Freeport as a hybrid artist management company and record label and created the Urban Collective Project in 2004. Harry is also a visiting lecturer in Music Business at City University London and board member of Creative Islington and the Hackney Music Development Cluster.

Samantha Beinhacker
Director of Business Affairs

Samantha L. Beinhacker is a strategic visionary with 20 years of experience working with leading organizations to support the field of social entrepreneurship and innovation. Sam recently moved back to the USA from the UK where she served as the Program Lead for the Skoll World Forum at Oxford University’s Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship. In this role she curated the thematic content for the largest premier convening of social entrepreneurs from around the globe.

Before moving to London for this role, she spent six years as the co-Director of the Yale School of Management/Goldman Sachs Partnership on Nonprofit Ventures where she educated nonprofits about income generation and helped procure seed funding to launch enterprise ventures. A published author, she is the co-editor of "Generating and Sustaining Nonprofit Earned Income: A Guide to Successful Enterprise Strategies."

Jay Enticknap
Executive Producer, Audio Production, Studio Management

Jay Enticknap is an experienced session keys player, producer and DJ. He has been involved with the music industry for the past 13 years since his first band signed a record deal with Acid Jazz at the age of 18. The band eventually separated leading Jay to move to London in order to study music production in 2000.

Immersing himself in London’s rich music and club scene, Jay started playing with a number of bands and performed at Prince William’s 21st birthday party and supported Lionel Ritchie at an exclusive Louis Vuitton 150th birthday event. Recently he supported Method Man and Redman playing keys for Lykez and supported Taio Cruz, Chris Brown and Beyoncé alongside singer/songwriter Zarif. He has also been touring the UK and Europe with UK soul songstress Alice Russell. Jay joined Urban Collective in 2009 as Executive Producer of London Urban Collective™ and is now resident in the London Urban Collective™ studio where he runs workshops on audio production, studio management and song arrangement.

Michaela Betts
Vocal training

Michaela Betts is an experienced and versatile vocal coach, pianist, session singer and songwriter. The array of film, TV and recording credits to her name include: The Nutcracker: The Untold Story, lyrics by Tim Rice starring John Turturro, Nathan Lane and Elle Fanning; the award-winning feature film Slipstream starring Sean Astin & Vinnie Jones; Teknolust starring Tilda Swinton; and Coca-Cola’s ‘The Future’ advertising campaign. As a vocal coach she teaches in a holistic way fusing classical fluidity with modern vibes, physicality and Alexander Technique.

www.myspace.com/michaelabetts

Yap
Song structure and lyric writing

Yap is the former front man of British Rap Metal band One Minute Silence and the current lead singer of industrial spoken word band Pink Punk. With OMS he wrote three acclaimed albums and toured the world alongside artists like Slipknot, Rage Against The Machine, Tool, Pantera, Muse and others. He is also currently writing a body of acoustic folk songs that draw on his southern Irish musical and political heritage. His songwriting, slam poetry and performance workshops are a favorite with Urban Collective artists year after year.

Sam Brown
Vocal training

Sam Brown is known for her expressive vocal style and ability to transcend musical styles easily. Her best-known song was Stop!, released in 1988; she released an album by the same name that year that sold more than two million copies worldwide. As well as her solo career, she has had a successful career as a backing vocalist and collaborating with other artists. She has worked with David Gilmour and Pink Floyd, Deep Purple (Live at the Royal Albert Hall), George Harrison, Nick Cave and many others; and often appears as a member of Jools Holland’s band. In 2003 she teamed up with Dave Rotheray of the British band, The Beautiful South, to form the side-project Homespun. The band has so far released two albums on independent labels Classic Records and Musicvision.

Danusia Zaremba
Vocal Training

Danusia is a vocal and performance coach whose clients include artists Dogs Die in Hot Cars, Chocolate Monday and Laura McMonagle from BBC1 River City as The City Chix. As a session vocalist Danusia has recorded and toured internationally with Frankie Miller, Carol Kidd, John Martyn, Hue & Cry, Horse, Texas, Hipsway, Deacon Blue, Donnie Munroe, Craig Armstrong, 911, China Crisis, Lulu, Horse, Elaine C. Smith and Jazz Trio Performances.

Kele Le Roc
Vocal and Songwriting

In 1996 Kele Le Roc had her first commercially released record – an underground two-step soul smash Let Me Know, produced by Best Kept Secret. In 1997 she signed to First Avenue Records, who in turn signed her to Wildcard/Polydor. Her first single Little Bit Of Lovin reached top ten in the national charts. Her second single in 1998, My Love also reached the top ten. Her TV appearances included Des O’Connor Tonight, Top Of The Pops, CD UK, Never Mind The Buzzcocks, A Question Of Pop, SM TV, The Big Breakfast and Fully Booked. In 1999 she picked up two MOBO awards for Best Single and Best Newcomer. She became a presenter of Channel 4’s urban music program Flava. She has completed two collaborations with Basement Jaxx and vocals on their album and two singles Romeo and Feelin U with Shy FX.

Diane Meyer
Drama and Performance

Diane Meyer is co-founder of The Pondering Goddess Theatre Group, a community-based organisation that provides performance art workshops for disadvantaged children and young adults. She has also been the acting and performance coach for Urban Collective projects since 2007.

Diane’s hugely enjoyable courses provide a practical introduction to vocal and body warm up prior to performance, articulation, stance, projection, improvisation, character development, dialogue, emotion, delivery, staging, casting, blocking and both comic and tragic timing.