2023 Women Of Live: Jacqueline Nalpant

Executive Vice President & Managing Executive | Wasserman Music

Wasserman Music’s Jacqueline Nalpant is particularly proud of her role in growing the new Nashville office in its first year – not a big surprise for someone who’s spent most of her career developing new talent.

Nalpant joined Wasserman Music with the agency’s acquisition of Paradigm Talent Agency in April 2021 and was named Executive Vice President and Managing Director of the Nashville office after starting at Monterey Peninsula Artists in 2001, prior to its acquisition by Paradigm. She shares executive oversight of the Nashville business on a day-to-day basis with longtime colleague Jonathan Levine.

So while she’s been part of the same team since her earliest days as an agent, she’s no stranger to successfully making the transition to new environments. And she’s thriving in Music City along with the rest of the agency.

She now guides a roster representing an eclectic range of artists, including Sylvan Esso, Cold War Kids, Cigarettes After Sex and Nickel Creek – the beloved bluegrass outfit featuring mandolin master Chris Thile and Watkins Family Hour members and siblings Sean and Sara Watkins – that is back on the road for the first time in nearly a decade.

Though Wasserman Music had a banner 2022 in Nashville, Nalpant recognizes the challenges the agency, along with the rest of the concert industry, faces.

“Ticketing issues and fees, as well as the rising costs of touring,” continue to loom large in 2023, Nalpant says, but she also sees opportunities amid the challenges.

“Opportunities are that streaming has increased the ability of developing bands to be able to sell more tickets faster than before,” she says.

Nalpant developed her career beside mentors including the late Paradigm Head of Music Chip Hooper, who died in 2016 but whose advice that “relationships matter” she continues to cite. And some advice she would offer to those entering the business? “Pick up the phone.”

As one of the veteran women in the industry, she’s seen improvement in equity, but acknowledges “it has a long way to go.” She jokes, “I should probably learn how to play golf.”