Northern California Woman Had Childhood Connection to Music Biz

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Janette Baxa got her first exposure to the music world when she was 6 and started subscribing to Rolling Stone.

“It was totally out of my league but I wanted to see who was out there in music,” recalled Baxa. “And then my dad got one of those huge satellites and I became hooked on MTV.”

Baxa grew up in Culter, a small farming community near Northern California that she described as “a one stoplight town from the day I was born to this very day.” And when she was little, Baxa told herself that if she couldn’t be famous, she wanted to be around famous people.

Now the director of publicity for Nederlander Concerts, a downtown L.A.-based promoter and producer of live entertainment, Baxa handles concert and corporate publicity. Upcoming events she is currently working on include tours by Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick; Sigur Ros; and David Byrne.

A few years after graduating from Loyola Marymount University, Baxa got her first L.A. gig in the music business at Island Records, courtesy of an LMU classmate.

“I helped with tours, photo shoots and video shoots. I just liked being there and seeing how everything was created. Plus I’m a big-time people person,” said Baxa. “I remember (singer) Tricky’s photo shoots were fun. We would all just be hanging out and I’d be like, ‘Hey, Tricky!’ ”

After Island, her resume includes stops at Way Cool Music, distributed through MCA; Asylum Marketing; Interscope Records; the House of Blues; and Live Nation, where she was a publicity manager for Southern California music. “All of them were amazing. There were some that were more demanding but it’s always been a fun ride for me,” said Baxa.

In comparing jobs at record labels to working for an event producer, she describes the latter businesses as more based on personal operations. Focusing on local press, there is a closer, stronger relationship with everyone, Baxa said.

And with familiar people from the House of Blues working with her at Nederlander Concerts, “It’s like a family,” she said.

Baxa is single and lives in Hollywood. In her free time, she likes reading, traveling, dining out and attending concerts.


Lauren Alicia Mendoza

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