Leanne Martin-Pollock

BIO

Leanne Martin-Pollock was born in Canada, and after working abroad several years in Russia, London and Greece, moved to Tanzania in 1999 and has garnered 20+ years’ experience cultural and corporate settings in Africa.  Leanne was the Country Coordinator for Music Crossroads from 2003 to 2005, also in 2003, set-up Music Mayday operations in Tanzania. In short time, and with limited budget, she managed to set-up a fully operational organization and to oversee the implementation of activities (i.e., festivals, workshops, concerts) in which hundreds of creative Tanzanian youth participated and attracting tens of thousands of peers.

The MMTZ flagship festival, B-Connected, took place in Dar es Salaam, and was simultaneously held in other countries where Music Mayday operates such as Ethiopia, South Africa and Holland. Through her commitment and positive energy, she fully mobilized her team and many volunteers, artists, partners and sponsors came on board which altogether made the Dar es Salaam edition of the B-Connected festival highly successful for several years in a row.  Dhow Country Music Academy and Sauti za Busara are among those Music Mayday partnered with.  

From 2007 to 2017 she was a partner in Trinity Promotions Ltd., a full-service communications and PR consultancy where she balanced corporate, development and cultural ecosystem development work for clients such as The European Union, The British Council, Goethe Institut among others.  She also spearheaded creative and commercial audio services with Mandugu Digital Studios/ Ambrose “Dunga” Akula Akwabi, including event work, creative direction, artist management as well as brand consulting.  

2021 and 2022 saw Leanne serving as Head of Strategy Umoja Sounds a Kenya/Australia music initiative which has been recording with artists across East and Southern Africa, and joining the Ongala Music Festival team as Festival Consultant, advising and coordinating several areas of the festival including but not limited to workshops and festival publications. Leanne is currently in partnership with Ongalaverse together with Akula Akwabi, Aziza Ongala and Ambasa Mandela.