Our Mentors

Kevin Press

Contemporary Music Markets

Kevin is host of The Moderns, a podcast and blog dedicated to contemporary music from everywhere – electronic music, new classical, free jazz and much more. Press began broadcasting in 1985 at CK-LN-FM. He’s written for multiple music publications, including Exclaim!, All About Jazz and Venue. Kevin will listen to your music.

Curtis Freeman

Professional Musician

Curtis is a studio and stage bassist and a music educator. He has performed in over forty countries, and across genres –  pop, rock, country, world music, gospel, and jazz, with  collaborators that include Canadian stars Suzie McNeil, Kim Mitchell, Rik Emmett , Colin James, aboriginal artist Susan Aglukark, rap icon  Tone Lōc, singer-songwriters Amy Sky and Marc Jordan, as well as Grammy winners Paul Brown (Luther Vandross), Liberty Silver, and Dan Hill. 

The 2021 Mississauga Music Musician of the Year and MARTY winner for Instrumental Artist of the Year 2021, Curtis is also a music professor at Centennial College in Toronto and at Metal Works Institute in Mississauga Ontario.

Curtis excels at  music theory and an ability to connect with musicians to improve their understanding of it and how it can improve their sound.

Chris Lee

Personal brand & marketing / Financial advisor

Chris’s career in brand, marketing and communications spans decades. He’s ready and able to provide advice on navigating your personal brand, and finding ways to cut through the noise.

Chris is also a licensed financial advisor, has the Canadian Securities Course certificate, and can provide insight and advice for setting up a sound foundation and practical approach to financial planning.

Tim Burns

Music for film and television

For almost 40 years now, Tim has worked in the film & TV industry as a screenwriter, producer and showrunner.  He has written feature films including American Werewolf in Paris and Freaked, and co-created the DisneyChannel hit series My Babysitter is a Vampire. 

Tim has also composed and recorded songs for everyone from Jim Henson to Jimmy Kimmel and Kevin Hart. He has won two regional Emmys for his children’s songs on PBS Sprout and Playhouse Disney. More recently Tim studied modern mixing and music production with Grammy winners Tchad Blake and Michael Brauer.  Working from his own home recording studio in Mississauga, Tim plays drums, keys, guitar, bass, and even sings when necessary.

Ari Aronson

Digital marketing and media

Ari has over 20 years of digital, advertising, design and tech industry experience from his work with leading digital agencies and brands in Canada. His  Ari Agency (founded in 2006) has helped many award-winning product and marketing departments, advertising and design agencies, and startups build high-performance teams of the future. His company offers services that accelerate innovation through people – including executive search, digital recruitment, agile workforce solutions, and human capital consulting.

Ari’s superpower is making connections and motivation. He can assess goals and create strategies to achieve them. He also has a huge database of connections in almost every industry.

Jeanette Trigiani Diehl

Media mentor

Jeanette has worked in media production for three decades as a producer/director/story editor/writer. She’s an accomplished key creative in the management and creation of documentary, reality, and lifestyle programming.

Wife of PlayOnward’s inspiration, Darin Diehl, Jeanette is all about sharing the connections and knowledge  she and Darin built during their forty years together. She has mentored innumerable young women in the TV industry and is working alongside the PlayOnward team to spearhead this endeavour.

She looks forward to connecting with you and making the connections you need to advance your music career. Darin would be proud.

Derek Johnston

Personal Development Coach

Derek is an advisor, strategist, and consultant, who, over more than 35 years,  has worked with hundreds of clients to improve their communications and leadership skills, navigate through change, and manage controversy and crisis. He helps clients see the big picture and to better understand what makes them tick.

As a certified Integral Master Coach™, Derek can help you  see new possibilities, and then build sustainable new skills to achieve results that you never knew were possible.

Tom Jackson

People Whisperer

Recording artist to some, celebrated actor and author to others, philanthropist to most – Tom Jackson is a voice for food banks, the disenfranchised, the traumatized, an Ambassador and Member of the Order of the Canadian Red Cross, a ‘minstrel with a mission’ and renaissance man. As a folk-pop singer-songwriter he has released 16 albums and is recognized for lead roles on hit TV series like North of 60, Shining Time Station, Red Earth Uncovered and Sullivan’s Crossing.  Tom has been duly recognized as a Companion of the Order of Canada, is a recipient of Juno and Gemini Humanitarian Awards, and in 2014 received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. More about Tom here: (https://tomjackson.ca/biography/)

Alison Jackson

People Wrangler

Alongside Tom, she was the logistical lead and producer for The Huron Carole Benefit Concert Series and Dreamcatcher Tours (including 10 years of radio and award-winning TV broadcast specials for CBC, CMT, APTN). Philanthropy at the forefront, these live, documented, televised events were produced in response to Manitoba flooding, Alberta drought/fires/flooding, and national response to 9/11, securing their company, Tomali Pictures Ltd., a foothold in Alberta for 3 decades.

With a combined century of working in the Canadian entertainment industry, Alison & Tom Jackson have nurtured relationships with key leaders in music performance. Their network ‘superpower’ is a who’s-who database of professionals suited to next level production. Connections with music directors, producers, studio and stage musicians, composers, promoters may assist your navigation through the maze of options and opportunities not always visible to the naked eye.

Dwayne Desaulniers

Media Relations, Licensing, Strategy

Dwayne is a New York City-based media executive with Canadian and US experience working with firms such as Reuters, the Associated Press, Rogers Media and the Canadian Press. He’s mentored a wide range of start-ups in both countries and has a passion for helping entrepreneurs and artists get their start.

The holder of numerous editorial and business awards, Dwayne brings a range of business, legal and technology expertise to PlayOnward.

Says Dwayne: “I’m thrilled to be part of PlayOnward and look forward to helping and advising artists in this amazing program.”

Joe Davanzo

Vocalizing, Producing, Song Writing

Based in Toronto, Joe has a passion for mentoring young artists. For much of his career he has written, recorded and toured with his own original bands, along the way winning Q107’s Homegrown competition, with ZuZu Petals, and the 97.7 Rock Search, as diesalhum. With his music partner and brother, Anthony, Joe ran the Backroom Recording Studio, where he produced and provided vocal coaching for many emerging artists. Today Joe sings and plays 80s hits with his acoustic duo Simple Cell, performs in a Duran Duran tribute band called Blue Silver, and remains dedicated to his original songwriting project Catch the Queen.