CEC, a songwriter, producer and artist from Winnipeg, has recently been chosen to participate in the 2025 Women in the Studio National Accelerator. Hosted by Music Publishers Canada, the program provides women and non-binary producers from across Canada with training in technical skills, branding and financial literacy to promote equity in the music industry.
CEC was born and raised in Winnipeg but has lived around the world, including in the U.S. and Spain. They also lived in Ottawa where they played hockey and recently completed a master’s degree in music and culture before moving back to Winnipeg.
“I’ve been producing my own stuff for a long time, but I started producing music for other people in the last five years or so and taking that more seriously because I love creation,” they said.
CEC has also opened a new studio in the Exchange District with Lana Winterhalt, who was a participant in the accelerator in 2021.
According to CEC, the program includes zoom sessions where participants get to talk to professionals about different areas of the music industry. By the end of the month, the producers will take up a week-long residency in Toronto.
“That’ll be a lot more of an intensive, full days booked of workshops and panels and training and stuff like that [in Toronto]. And then networking and a lot more hands-on stuff because we get to be in person in the studio, and they provide a session with a photographer for headshots.”
“It’ll be really nice to also meet the rest of our group in person, so we can build those relationships and those professional relationships with other people across Canada,” said CEC.
CEC stressed that the program is unique not only in that it is tailored to music producers, but especially to producers who do not identify as men.
“It’s really hard to find producers, engineers, people that aren’t necessarily artists or songwriters, that aren’t men […] Especially now, as I’ve become more intentional in who I’m collaborating with, it’s quite hard,” they said.
In addition, CEC said there are not enough engineers and producers that are women to cover every genre.
“It’s great when you have a couple [of women producers] that are really good, but let’s say they’re [in] rock or something like that, then it’s not really reflective of everybody. So it’s important to train enough people [in] every genre or all kinds of experiences.”
“It’s really interesting and important that there are programs like this every year that happen, to specifically train women and non-binary people […] Every year, there’s a new cohort of six or seven professionally trained producers that come out of it,” they added.
Currently, CEC is working on a new single called “Enormous” with 10 to 15 collaborators, or the “Avengers” of the Winnipeg music scene as CEC called them. The track is to be released on Aug. 22.
Keep up with CEC’s work by following them on Instagram at cec.mp3 or by visiting cecmusic.ca.
