Centricity Music Names James Duke Director/A&R, Promotes Two

Pictured: James Duke, Justin Nicolet, Andrew Lambeth

Centricity Music has hired touring and studio guitarist James Duke as Director of A&R. Justin Nicolet has also been promoted to Creative Director, Centricity Publishing, and Andrew Lambeth has been promoted to Director of Sales and Marketing at the Franklin, Tennessee-based company.

Duke, whose guitar playing can be heard on worship albums by Jesus Culture, Michael W. Smith, Elevation Worship, John Mark McMillan, Matt Redman and more, has helped lead the charge in shaping the iconic electric guitar sound that many modern worship guitarists are striving to achieve today. Having shared the stage with many of today’s leading voices in worship, Duke has also been a mentor and example to many young, aspiring electric guitarists.

“When Centricity made the decision to increase our reach into the modern worship movement, we knew the people we brought on to head up the initiative would be of ultimate importance,” says John Mays, Centricity Music’s Vice President of A&R. “That’s why we took our time and talked to lots of people. In the end, we’re so excited to have James Duke joining our team as a Director of A&R, focusing on worship. James’ background as a worship leader and guitar player for so many of the modern worship communities makes him uniquely qualified for the task of identifying songs and artists that can bring fresh expressions of worship to the church.”

Nicolet worked in radio before joining Maximum Artist Group/Maximum Artist Management to represent clients like Natalie Grant, Danny Gokey, Mary Mary, etc. He was also Manager of Artist and Writer Relations for Maximum’s publishing division, Maxx Music Publishing. After almost four years at Maximum, Justin joined the Centricity Music family as Manager of Publishing.

Lambeth discovered and developed artists as the head of imprint label Residence Music for four years before moving to Centricity Music as Manager of Sales and Marketing/Streaming. In his new role as Director of Sales and Marketing, he has an emphasis on partnerships among streaming outlets and playlists.

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Lorie Hollabaugh

Hollabaugh, a staff writer at MusicRow magazine, has over 20 years of music business experience and has written for publications including American Profile, CMA Close Up, Nashville Arts And Entertainment, The Boot and Country Weekly. She has a Broadcast Journalism and Speech Communication degree from Texas Christian University, (go Horned Frogs), and welcomes your feedback or story ideas at lhollabaugh@musicrow.com.

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