Describe your background and industry experience, and explain how it will help you contribute to the SOCAN Board of Directors?
Lesley Barber has scored a string of award-winning and highly acclaimed projects, most notably Kenneth Lonergan’s Oscar-nominated film, Manchester by The Sea. 
A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Class of 2016, Lesley was recently elected to represent the music branch on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and serves as Chair of the Academy’s Music Branch. Lesley also serves as Composer Chair of the Canadian Film Centre’s Slaight Family Music Lab.
A multi-instrumentalist, conductor, pianist, and producer Lesley writes music marked by intelligence and emotional depth. Barber’s interest in modern electronic programming, loops, and effects add dimension to her work, creating hybrid atmospheric scores with lush orchestration with an innate ability to bring the essential to light and avoid the cliché.
Lesley’s recent films include Late Night, directed by Nisha Ganatra and starring Emma Thompson, Mindy Kaling’s Four Weddings and a Funeral series, American Woman, produced by Killer Films and directed by Semi Chellas, Stephanie Laing’s Irreplaceable You, Nappily Ever After directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, Bonjour Tristesse directed by Durga Chew-Bose, Maybe I Do starring Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Diane Keaton, and Emma Roberts, and the Diane Warren documentary Relentless.
Her distinguished list of credits includes Lonergan’s Oscar-winning You Can Count on Me; Jerry Rothwell’s award-winning documentary How to Change the World; Patricia Rozema’s Mansfield Park; Mira Nair’s Golden Globe winning Hysterical Blindness; Mary Harron’s Moth Diaries; the children’s classic Little Bear with Maurice Sendak; Yo-Yo Ma: Six Gestures; and Boaz Yakin’s Boarding School.
Lesley is a proud and active member of the Alliance for Women Film Composers, which has taken a leading role in the much-publicized diversity conversation now occurring in Hollywood. She has a passion for good food, great cities and interesting company.
Having served on a variety of panels and forums focusing on issues such as AI, diversity and inclusion, and the livelihood of film composers, I’ve gained insights into the priorities of our community, and how crucial it is to bring underrepresented voices to the table, and provide advocacy and support to younger and legendary composers and songwriters alike. My position as Composer Chair at the Canadian Film Centre has provided an understanding of the composing landscape a younger generation of music creators are up against, and how paramount it is that we provide mentorship and guidance on fair remuneration and protection of rights for the next wave of composers and songwriters. Â
In recent years I’ve served as a Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences, and as Chair of the Academy’s Music Branch. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to represent composers and songwriters, provide advocacy and leadership, and work with other Board members on matters of governance, membership and other issues. Â
The SOCAN Board would be a welcome step in representing composer colleagues and friends with the issues facing us right now—the digital shift, AI, protection of Canadian Content and much more. I would look forward to helping SOCAN build on it strengths as it takes on the enormous changes and challenges to our intellectual property and livelihoods.
In your opinion, what issues will be most important to SOCAN members over the next three years?
The issues facing SOCAN take on new complexities as we face an increasingly evolving royalty distribution landscape and the adoption of AI in the music marketplace. SOCAN’s membership looks to SOCAN to remain on the cutting edge of technology and systems protecting and optimizing the income generated from our intellectual property, and to protect the prosperity of all composers and songwriters who trust SOCAN to collect royalties on behalf of artists, labels and publishers.
Other issues important to our members include:
Growing and maintaining the roster of outstanding SOCAN Songwriters and Composers in the competitive landscape of international Performing Rights Organizations.
Issues of Equity and Inclusion in the SOCAN workplace and community, including awards, artist development, and other programming and events supported by SOCAN
The adoption of AI—both as a tool for international royalty collection and distribution, and as a threat to the livelihoods of SOCAN members. There is an escalating need to protect the integrity of our intellectual property as digital music creators push to infringe and devalue the rights of human artists.
The digital shift has had a massive effect on the granular value and distribution of our intellectual property, and SOCAN can help composers better understand the overall landscape of royalty distribution and where their PRO fits into the royalty puzzle—including mechanical and neighbouring rights. Helping composers understand the royalty distribution channels, they need to have in place as writers and publishers of their music, and advocating for our income generating content is crucial to our member’s livelihoods.