As the manager at Echo Mountain Recording Studios, Jessica Tomasin has become one of the cornerstones of the Asheville music community. Under her direction, the studio has evolved into a world class destination featuring a full range of digital and analog capabilities with an amazing selection of gear and a wide variety of credits to its name. Through volunteering and establishing private companies and non-profit organizations, she is committed to helping the
future of music and promoting the city as a musical destination.
From the age of 16, Jessica knew she would work in music. Her first opportunity came in her hometown of Detroit where she sang backup vocals on a hip-hop track and was immediately hooked. She took any studio work available from cleaning up, to hauling crates full of records for the DJs at night on the rave scene to stay involved and experience the industry from the ground up.
After moving to Asheville, she continued to grow her diverse skills in construction, rock climbing, and restaurant management before landing at the Orange Peel music venue. It was in 2006 that she became the studio manager of Echo Mountain Recording, a position that would set the path for a passion driven career. Since then she has expanded her path to include artist/label
management, booking, and event production.
Jessica co-founded the Asheville Music Professionals, a non-profit organization committed to providing education, advocacy, connection, and collaboration in the music community. With a passion for teaching, she created Inside Out, a music program that teaches music production, performance, and business to BIPOC artists and recently expanded the program to include youth programming. She also teaches festival production, studio management, and music
entrepreneurship at Montreat College.
In 2013 she was chosen as Entrepreneur of the Year by the City of Asheville/Chamber of Commerce for her work in music. In 2014 she started Jet Up Productions, a full service event management and production company, and has curated a number of festivals and events each year. Jet Up has been a part of The Breeder’s Cup, Asheville Goombay Festival, Beer City Festival, Brewgrass, RHS Community Foundation Fundraiser featuring Gladys Knight and Little Big Town, and many other projects. As time has progressed, Jessica decided that all projects have to come from a place of leaving the world/community in a better place than she found it.
Her latest event, Connect Beyond Festival, is a multi-genre arts festival featuring creative talent from around the world with a mission to inspire personal growth and change for social justice through music, film, art and literature. This innovative event features intellectually stimulating panels, movie screenings, and live music performances, with authors, producers, musicians, journalists, publicists, educators, activists, and filmmakers coming together in the
name of achieving a more socially just planet.