There are some happy musicians around the East Coast this morning, with the announcement of who has been selected to perform at the official showcases at the next East Coast Music Awards. The names were released this morning at Moncton's Empress Theatre, one of the venues for the upcoming event in April 2012. Apart from the awards themselves, the showcases are considered a major highlight for the conference.

Like the nominations for awards, showcase artists are chosen by a jury of music industry professionals and insiders. Artists can submit to a variety of different showcase categories, and each one is judged and marked in a lengthy process. The winners from this system are invited to play the showcases, which are held over the five days of the conference. Categories include country, rock, roots, francophone, and the very popular songwriter's circle event. The public can purchase tickets to most of these shows, but also attending are the delegates to the conference. This is where buyers and bookers get a chance to check out the acts, and bring them to the festival, theatre, club or in some cases, country they represent. Several East Coast artists are on their way to Australia in January thanks to a deal brokered at last year's ECMA.

It's also the place for other kinds of career opportunities to happen. Also at last year's event in Charlottetown, Andy Brown from Fredericton wowed the right rep, and got a deal to place a song on the ABC-TV show Rookie Blue, which brought him into millions of homes, and gave him a huge sales boost on iTunes.

With the event being held in Moncton, there's a strong New Brunswick presence in the showcases. It's normal for the Association to add several performers from the host province each year. The songwriter's circle features David Myles, John Mullane, Lisa LeBlanc, and Pascal Lejeune, as well as vets Ron Hynes and Rose Cousins. One special showcase for the Moncton ECMA sees several NB artists matched with an orchestra; Matt Andersen, David Myles, Chris Colepaugh and Samantha Robichard will team up with Symphony New Brunswick and the NB Youth Orchestra.

The list of performers stretches into the dozens; to take a peek, and get an idea of the performers you can see in Moncton from April 11 - 15, got to: http://www.ecma.ca/news.asp?section=&id=228