About Pat Pattison

Pat Pattison is an author, clinician and Berklee Professor of Lyric Writing and Poetry whose students have composed for major artists and written number one songs. At Berklee, he developed the curriculum for the only songwriting major in the country. His books, including Songwriting: Essential Guide to Rhyming and Songwriting: Essential Guide to Lyric Form and Structure, are recognized as definitive in their genre, and have earned many ecstatic reviews. His clinics are attended by songwriters all over the country, and his articles appear regularly in a variety of industry publications.

About Shane Adams

Shane Adams, a Berklee College of Music alumni ('95), entered the music business by making tape copies at Lyle Lovett's music publisher. A few years later he contributed to the 1999 Grammy marketing campaign for Jack Jones at Honest Entertainment. He ran two successful publishing companies (Harold Shedd as Creative Director and Mike O'Rear Publishing as Vice President) before co-founding the internet record label Songwriter Records as CEO. Most recently, Shane served as Creative Director/Catalog Manager for Sea Gayle Music in Nashville. Shane Adams is currently producing several songwriters, writing film scores and teaching songwriting and lyric writing courses for the Berklee College of Music online school.

About Neil Diercks

Neil Diercks is a Los Angeles based songwriter, song coach, and musician. He served for over four years at Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., in Nashville. As Manager of A&R Activities, he worked with hit songwriters including Gary Burr, Steve Bogard, Stephony Smith, Jeff Stevens, and Victoria Shaw, who penned hits for artists such as Tim McGraw, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Trisha Yearwood, Faith Hill, Ricky Martin, and Christina Aguilara. Neil is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Berklee College of Music, where he studied songwriting, voice, and music business, and he now serves on Berklee's Board of Trustees. His Internet company SongCoach.biz (www.songcoach.biz) helps writers all over the world strengthen their craft and talents. Neil and fellow alum Elik Alvarez recently formed Alvarez-Diercks Productions, which composes and produces songs and music for TV, radio, film, and recording artists.

About Andrea Stolpe

Andrea Stolpe is a staff songwriter for Universal Music Publishing Company. For over a decade, Andrea has written songs for the commercial music industry, pitched her own material, and performed as a solo artist. After relocating to Nashville, TN, Andrea began as a staff writer for EMI Music Publishing. Her experience there led to extensive work singing demos for such artists as Faith Hill and Joe Dee Messina. Andrea has collaborated with great artists such as Mike Reid, Don Schlitz, and Stephen Robson, and penned songs for pop and country artists including Faith Hill, Steve Azar, Josh Gracin, Shonagh Daly and Daniel Lee Martin. Her writing style spans all genres of contemporary commercial music. She holds a songwriting degree from Berklee College of Music with an emphasis on performance. Currently, Andrea is recording an album with Mercury artist Anthony Smith and renowned producers Bobby Terry and Jan Stolpe. Jan has worked on projects with such artists as Reba McEntire, Allen Jackson, Kathy Mattea, and Billy Ray Cyrus.