Founder, Chris “Ifatoye” Theberge
Chris is a Grammy nominated musician/entrepreneur with decades of experience in international performance, music production, marketing/tech joint ventures, cultural/event curation, and studio/label ownership and management.
He is a founding member of the internationally renowned, Grammy-nominated jazz group Groove Collective, slated to perform at Cuba’s 40th annual 2025 Havana Jazz Plaza Festival.
Chris currently serves as Director of The Bowery Jazz Messengers, a NYC-based non-profit that helps high-school jazz musicians develop their craft while being of service, performing for the homeless and migrant communities in NYC’s.
In 2018 Music Works production/label, in partnership with Sendero Music in Matanzas, won Cuba’s prestigious national Cubadisco award for Ilú Keké: Transmisión en la Erita Meta. The project is the historic recorded musical account of one of the oldest sets of Bata drums on the island and the African descendants & culture surrounding it.
He is currently producing projects in Cuba and Nigeria and curates “House of Drums”, an ongoing live event series celebrating Afro-descendant music & culture in New York City. He also serves as an adviser to the Harlem Film House, producers of the annual, worldwide HipHop Film Festival.
Engineer, Artist, Producer, DJ Nina Creese
Nina Creese is a multitalented force of nature, an artist, engineer and DJ who sings, composes, produces & performs and just happens to be a pioneer in Virtual Reality Music & Gaming.
She joined forces with Music Works founder Chris Theberge in 2013, engineering, hosting workshops, producer showcases and creative events and helping to build Music Works Studios on Manhattan’s Upper West Side into a community of 400+ artists & producers.
She has engineered for Netflix, Q-Tip (Tribe Called Quest), Sony ATV, The X-Files, Danny Glover, Abercrombie & Fitch/Bustle, CNN’s Great Big Story, CBS’s Madam Secretary Danny Brown and has worked on various NYC recording studio construction projects with studio designer/builder Christos Tsantilis.
As an artist Nina has released music with Music Works, placing music on Showtime’s “The Chi” and VR Software company Groove Gunner and performs in NYC and internationally with NYC’s Groove Collective.
In 2022, Nina founded the MusicXGaming Castle VR Studio in the Metaverse, where creatives and gamers unite through VR/XR experiences for music production & gaming. She hosts VR music production/collaboration sessions and workshops in the VR studio she designed in the Metaverse and also DJ’s IRL (in real life) for the HipHop Film Festival/Harlem Film House and select NYC events.
Nina also serves as a speaker at industry events, colleges and has been featured at Harlem's Apollo Theatre's Education program.
info@musicworksnyc.com