Greetings! I'm Meg Montgomery, the founder of Worldly Vibe Multimedia. Corporate Resume I began my creative life playing trumpet. After listening to my elder brothers and sister play instruments, I was given a cornet by my step-father when I was 9 years old. Within 6 months I knew I had found the path to my life. I studied trumpet with Diane Mathie, David Mathie, Maryann Vervate, Paul Famiglietti, Vince Penzerella, Jim Hynes, Cecil Bridgewater, and Allan Dean.

I spent my teenage summers studying at the Potsdam, Eastman and Berklee schools of music, where I had the fortune to meet amazing players and teachers from around the world. At age 16, I joined the New York Youth Symphony Orchestra, an organization which gave me fabulous opportunities to play at Carnegie Hall, and around NY State in chamber ensembles. During my high school years, I produced and directed several ensembles, including a brass quintet, jazz ensemble, and chamber ensemble.

I graduated from The Indiana University School of Music in 1988, and then moved back to New York City, where I began performing in local ensembles, expanding my horizons from a strict repertoire of jazz and classical to include rock, off-Broadway, reggae, funk, punk, latin, klezmer, pop, and other styles of music.

While playing gigs in the early '90s, including rock bands Person to Person, The Leisure Class, Altimeter, and others, I encountered a West African band playing soukous at The Garage on Avenue B (NYC's East Village). I had never experienced music that created such incredibly high energy, and could be so deeply rhythmic and melodic at the same time; my ears and heart were forever changed. Following my new passion, I began performing with an Afro-Caribbean band called Global Warming, which featured guitarist Nathan Njiharine from Namibia, guitarist Adoni from Trinidad, and a keyboardist from Dominica, in addition to 3 American members.

I interned for The Knitting Factory in 1988-89, which was the home to a growing musical movement of progressive and experimental music, and later for The World Music Institute, which continues to present the best of World Music artists in the New York area. It was though WMI that I became entranced with Moroccan Gnawa music, and where I met Moroccan Gnawa musician Hassan Hakmoun, with whom I worked for several years as trumpet player and audio engineer. I have continued to work with traditional and fusion Gnawa ensembles as performer, producer, and manager, and advocate for this beautiful, but underappreciated form of music.

I began my corporate career in 1987 at Goldman, Sachs & Co., doing word processing, graphics and database work. But you can read about that part of my life in my resume, the link is a few paragraphs above this. The important thing is that eventually my graphic design career and my music career came together, when I created Worldly Vibe Multimedia in 1995.

In the mid-'90s, I could be found every Monday night at the high-energy Timbuktu Jam Sessions at Club Anarchy in the East Village. This jam session was the arrival point for African musicians who were moving from Paris (as Paris became hostile to Africans). Among the mind-blowing musicians who passed through that jam, I met those who would perform with me on my debut self-produced CD, "Le Collage C'est Fou!!" (Worldly Vibe 001), which was released in 1997 (recorded at Stormy Sky Studios, where I cut my production teeth). My compositions on this recording fused Latin, Caribbean, funk and jazz with African rhythms. The combination of musicians on this album is stellar: Jojo Kuo and Jeremey Gaddie on drums; Joao Vincent Lewis and Willy White on percussion, Li'Nard on bass, Azouhouni Adou on keyboards, Martino Atangana on guitar, M on vocals, and myself on trumpet.

Le Collage continued through 1998, and after the band broke up I created a stage personae, Electric Meg, which debuted at The Burning Man Festival in 1998 and performed extensively in the New York area.

In the late '90s, I performed with a wide range of ensembles, including The Mammals of Zod, Jamaican dub-poet Everton Sylvester, with Haitian Vodou master drummer Frisner Augustin and La Troupe Makandal, and with Metropolitan Klezmer. From 2000-2002, I toured with Arrow and the Multi National Force (writer of the famous party song, "Hot, Hot, Hot"), across the US and Caribbean. I also performed with and co-produced a Moroccan Gnawa-fusion ensemble, Mahjoun, in the early years of the new century. The last group I performed with before becoming a mother in 2004 was Klezska, a mix of traditional Klezmer music and reggae.

I have worked as a studio engineer with Sussan Deyhim, Graham Haynes, Daniel Moreno, On Davis, Kid Lucky and others, and live audio engineer at several festivals, including The Vision Festival. Most of what I learned about mixing music I learned from James P. Nichols, a Grammy-Award winning master engineer, and Dan Gaydos with other members of the Museum of Sound Recording.

Since 2000, I have lived in a loft in Newark, NJ with my family and a crew of other creative professionals. I designed and built (with a LOT of help from my friends!) the loft from an empty warehouse into an artists' live/work space. The loft has included a practice room, gym, and a Live Recording/Performance Room, which allowed musicians and other artists to record and perform in a wide open space, reminiscent of the amazing Soho loft scene of the '60s and '70s.

Currently I am living between upstate NY and Newark, and for work I am designing websites, recording and mastering musical artists. I am producing a new multimedia product that combines my music and design. I am also engaged in land stewardship and alternative energy.

The great influences of my life are: My Grandmother Alison Quackenbush for her forward vision in a backward time; My Mother Janet Nass for her creative survival skills raising 5 kids alone; Miles Davis, for his relentless innovation; Georgia O'keeffe for her adamant approach to life and art; Jimmy Carter, for his committment to political truth.