Liz Chew appointed Senior Director, Global Priorities – Marketing 

Rachel Tregenza appointed Senior Director, Global Priorities – Communications & Artist Strategy

George Irwin promoted to Manager – Audience & Analytics

Universal Music Group (UMG), the world leader in music entertainment, today announced a series of strategic promotions across the executive management team within its Global Classics & Jazz (GCJ) division. These appointments reflect the company’s ongoing commitment to growth and will provide focused resources to accelerate further transformation of its international business and market-leading classical and jazz labels.

Over the past two years, UMG’s Global Classics & Jazz artists have garnered worldwide attention – from Andrea Bocelli’s record-breaking livestream at Milan’s Duomo to Jon Batiste’s landmark 11 GRAMMY® Award nominations. The GCJ team worked closely with their partner labels to build on their success, using innovative creative campaigns, often in a challenging and complex environment, to achieve broad international reach. As fans both new and long-term explored the genres during the pandemic, jazz and classical music listenership grew significantly. 

Announcing the changes, Sam Jackson, EVP, Global Classics & Jazz, said, “These new appointments represent the constant evolution of our international business. This exceptional team will support expansion and diversification across the pivotal areas of international marketing, communications, artist strategy and audience analytics. Focused on delivering our artists’ diverse creative ambitions, they will work together with our labels and partners, offering their global expertise and unrivalled insight.”

Dickon Stainer, President & CEO, Global Classics & Jazz comments: “These changes mark the latest step in our mission to deliver best-in-class service for our incredible artists, and for these genres of music which hold global cultural significance and are of great importance to us at UMG.”

Based in London and effective January 11, 2022, Liz Chew takes on a new role as Senior Director, Global Priorities – Marketing, having spent two years as Director, International Marketing. Chew, a respected marketeer who joined UMG in 2011 from EMI Classics, has delivered highly successful marketing campaigns for Andrea Bocelli, including his number one album Si and Ludovico Einaudi’sCinema, featuring scores from his Oscar- and BAFTA-winning films. Chew has masterminded international campaigns for superstar artists including Ennio Morricone, Luciano Pavarotti, Cecilia Bartoli and Ólafur Arnalds. She will lead a team spanning London and Berlin, creating dynamic global campaigns for a wide range of high-profile projects across UMG’s Global Classics & Jazz roster, as well as supporting new, emerging and developing artists.

Rachel Tregenza expands her role to become Senior Director, Global Priorities – Communications & Artist Strategy, after two years leading on PR for the division and shaping international album campaigns for classical and jazz artists including Max Richter, Lang Lang, Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason, Víkingur Ólafsson and Gregory Porter. She also worked alongside Chew on Bocelli’s emotionally-charged ‘Music For Hope’ event which became one of the biggest musical live stream performances of all-time, with three million peak concurrent viewers. Tregenza joined GCJ after five years at Decca where she worked across numerous key media campaigns. She will focus on the ever-expanding new audiences for classical and jazz repertoire, driving artist strategy while continuing to amplify storytelling across the division, working alongside label colleagues, artists and UMG Global Communications.

George Irwin is promoted to the newly created role of Audience & Analytics Manager, reporting to Paul Moseley, SVP, Content & Data. Joining GCJ as an intern, Irwin swiftly became indispensable, working across content and audience analysis. His valuable insight and forward-thinking approach will inform and elevate worldwide digital campaigns.

Already a flourishing division, having partnered on the delivery of global projects such as Max Richter’s eight-hour work SLEEP, Jacob Collier’s GRAMMY®-winning albums and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s award-winning scores, the team are unwavering in their commitment to GCJ’s talented artists and their recorded legacies.

These key promotions of highly regarded UMG executives are indicative of the company’s support for employee development and innovation within the management team for Global Classics & Jazz. As the genres continue to grow, focus remains on expanding creative opportunities. The simultaneous emphasis on engaging current listeners whilst attracting new fans worldwide remains at the heart of the division, ensuring remarkable artists and their music are shared with the broadest possible listener base.