Valerie Ghent

President and CEO of West Street Records, as well as producer/musician/singer-songwriter and digital recording engineer (Ashford & Simpson, Deborah Harry), Valerie Ghent produced the recent "We'll Carry On" WTC benefit CD which features songs by FDNY, PAPD, WTC volunteers and local NYC musicians. Ghent has been asked by both the Coalition of 9/11 Families and by the 9.11 Tribute Archive of Designing Worlds to be their music curator: to collect, document and present songs and poems written about 9/11. A lifelong downtown NYC resident, Ghent has been an active volunteer and fundraiser for WTC Ground Zero Relief since Sept 2001 and worked for months at the WTC site obtaining and distributing specific supplies for the recovery effort. On March 11th/25th 2002, Ghent organized  over 45 performers in the Songwriter's Beat 9.11 Tribute benefit Concerts, specifically looking for poets and songwriters among the FDNY, PAPD, NYPD, EMS and WTC volunteers. She edited 'word', a collection of poems and lyrics presented at the concerts and self-published the collection for charity. This summer she organized the music for both Firefighter and Police Appreciation Weekends at the Intrepid Museum. The "We'll Carry On" project has been featured on Channel 2's 'The Early Show', Channel 9 News, New York 1; in the NY Times, the Daily News,NY Press, American Songwriter and by the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. 

Ghent graduated from NYU with a BA in Psychology/Russian Literature, studied at the University of London, has traveled extensively including China, Russia, France, Australia and New Zealand, and currently runs a monthly songwriter's night at the Cornelia Street Cafe in Greenwich Village. She has worked with Ashford & Simpson since 1989, recording several albums with them - one a collaboration with Dr. Maya Angelou, another features Valerie Simpson, Nina Simone and Roberta Flack - as well as recorded and mixed live-to-air "In The Spotlight", Ashford & Simpson's live weekly radio show on WRKS-FM (NY) where she  recorded over 60 renowned singers including Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Freddie Jackson, Wilson Pickett, Chaka Kahn,Stephanie Mills, Patti LaBelle, Thelma Houston, George Benson and many others. In addition, Ghent plays keyboards
and sings backup with Ashford & Simpson live and has appeared on television shows Rosie O'Donnell, Oprah, Pat Sajak and The Byron Allen Show.

Earlier this year Ghent composed the music for the acclaimed, sold-out "The Hamlet Project" which opened at LaMama ETC in February. She also composed music for a world premiere this fall of "Luft", by French choreographer Genevieve Pernin. Ghent  is a ProTools/midi/music/songwriting consultant, a premiere studio musician/producer/engineer, an assistant instructor in Chinese internal martial arts, and is now creating a music program for the WTC not-for-profit Tuesday's Children. Other releases on West Street include Ghent's own "Unstoppable", her father's "Songs For Children and All Their Friends" and the upcoming "Velour".

For more information please visit http://weststreetrecords.com  http://valghent.com http://songwritersbeat.com