Her career as a publicist began after tackling multiple roles in the entertainment business starting in the late '60s - from managing the Riverboat, a Yorkville coffee house, to working as personal assistant to record producer Brian Ahern, and booking Eastern Sound, the leading Toronto recording studio of the day. She began work in publicity in the early '80s when she took on management roles for
singers Peter Pringle and Micah Barnes; in 1985 she spent several months with the fledgling record label, Duke Street. A brief spell with a veteran publicist to work on a project for Toronto Arts Against Apartheid, stretched to almost two years. During this time, Ms. Harbury handled publicity for the Juno Awards, the national tour of the Moscow Circus, and was the external consulting publicist for the Ontario Place Forum. From 1988 until 2000, Ms. Harbury ran her own company - small, versatile and effective. She worked on contract for some clients, and on a project basis for specific clients or events. For the 1990 and 1991 seasons, Ms. Harbury was responsible for all publicity activities for the Ontario Place Forum, at the time one of Toronto's most "visible" and important venues. The company was retained to handle national publicity for the Juno Awards in 1993 and subsequently for the 1995 and 1996 Junos. She returned again for the 1999 and 2000 awards. Harbury formed Planet3 Communications Ltd. with Joanne Smale. In January 2004 Harbury stepped down from the partnership and reactivated Jane Harbury Publicity, returning to focus more strongly on her first love - the arts and developing artists. During the three years as President of Planet3 Communications, Jane Harbury worked with a diverse client roster including the opening for Jeff Healey’s club, Andrea Bocelli, launches of CBC Country Canada Television and NorthernBlues Music, a 50-date tour for the popular Mediterranean artist Pavlo and the 2003 Writers’ Guild of Canada Awards Event. JHP handled the first five years of publicity for the North By Northeast Festival and Music Conference. JHP, retained for the inaugural year of the highly successful Just For Laughs Comedy Tour also returned for the tour's second year. The company was retained to handle media relations for the 14th Annual Gemini Awards in 1999. JHP handled all media relations for Virsky - Ukrainian Dance Company. The company played 14 cities across Canada during May and June of 1998. Jane Harbury Publicity handled media and public relations for the 2004 and 2005 seasons of the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival, a three and a half week festival taking place in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We were responsible for media relations supporting the first ever Toronto Music Expo (TMX) held in November 2005. We completed our fourth year as publicists for the Toronto City Roots Festival 2008. We were retained for the 2005 and 2006 Earth Day Galas and also for the Earth Day Scholarship awards. JHP was retained by Sandra Fraser to be on site during the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair to encourage media interest in the inaugural Kubota Cup Final in 2005. Due to timing / scheduling conflicts we were unable to work 2006. Jane Harbury Publicity was retained for an eighteen-month stint as Canadian representative for Group W Satellite Communications (TNN: The Nashville Network and CMT: Country Music Television) for the duration of their campaign to remain on Canadian cable television. JHP was hired to handle the media campaign for the 2006 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, Festival and PowWow. We handled publicity for the first four Smooth Jazz Awards, 2005 – 2008 and returned for 2010 and 2011shows. We also returned for a fourth year to handle all media activity prior to and during the Total Health Show. We were retained for the 2008 and 2009 National Jazz Awards. JHP has undertaken ongoing publicity work for Marc Jordan, Amy Sky, Dan Hill, Hagood Hardy, the Wild Strawberries, Chris Whiteley, Trudy Desmond, The Reggae Cowboys, and Penny Lang, to name just a few. JHP handled the on-going publicity for the Borealis Recording Company's first four years. The company was involved, from its inception until 2003 in the Bluebird North Series, a series of songwriter showcases with all proceeds going to the Songwriters Association of Canada. JHP was on contract with BMG Music's strategic marketing department for ten years (1991 – 2000), and, during that time undertook ongoing publicity activities for such artists as Ben Heppner, James Galway, The Chieftains, A.J. Croce, Kermit the Frog, Jack Grunsky, Marianne Faithfull, Marcus Roberts, Evgeny Kissin and John Pizzarelli. This included handling all media interviews and appearances, national tours and album releases. The company assumed multiple roles, including direction consultation for young and emerging Canadian artists, including Jason Fowler, Paul Grady, Clay Tyson, and Rachel Kane, the Canadian Chamber Academy. JHP was Canadian publicist for the phenomenally successful platinum-selling JUNO-Award winner, Lhasa deSela from the beginning of this artist’s career until her untimely death in 2010. Ms. Harbury has received many awards for her work including gold and platinum albums for Lhasa, and The Chieftains, and a platinum album for her contribution to “Oh What A Feeling – A Vital Collection of Canadian Music” by CARAS. In December 2011 she was honoured to receive the inaugural “Unsung Hero” award from the Canadian Folk Music Awards. A few years back the company was also retained by Razor & Tie Entertainment to support the release of Fred Eaglesmith's “50 Odd Dollars” album and his hectic Canadian touring schedule. We were retained by operatic star Ben Heppner to promote two non-label related events. We launched the legendary Ian Tyson’s hugely successful recording, “Songs From the Gravel Road”. We also worked with independent artists such as Quagmyre, The Bills and Berube. We represented ‘70s star Andy Kim for a nine-month period during which time we were instrumental in his radio success for “I Forgot to Mention” and for bringing him into Canada’s wonderful Songwriters’ community. Harbury works with legendary singers / songwriters Eric Andersen and Tom Rush for all their Canadian appearances. She has worked as unit publicist for the Bruce McDonald films Highway 61 and Roadkill, as well as for Talk 16, produced by Janis Lundman and Adrienne Mitchell. Harbury has also acted as advisor to a variety of community organizations, including the North York Harvest Food Bank, the Ontario Hemophilia society, and People With A Purpose, a pro-youth, anti-drug organization. In addition, Ms. Harbury handled publicity for Stage Kids, a non-profit group that creates and produces musical performances by young people for school and theatre audiences. We handle publicity for young emerging talent, Layah Jane, Corey Heuvel in addition to veterans David Wilcox, Suzie Vinnick, Chantal Chamberland among others. We completed campaigns with Creaking Tree String Quartet, Ken Whiteley, James Keelaghan and David Francey. Several years ago we handled pr for Michael Kaeshammer’s CD, Lovelight. We work with talented young double bassist, Brandi Disterheft, drummer Mark McLean and talented brother, Lester McLean. We were retained by France-based PlusLoin to handle Canadian publicity for KellyLee Evans’ Juno-winning Nina Simone tribute recording and plans are for us to work with KellyLee on her 2013 release. We were hired for publicity for the AMICI Chamber Ensemble eight years ago and in October, 2009 also assumed General Manager position - on an interim basis with the ensemble - until a permanent replacement was found. We are publicists for ALMA Records (artists include Hilario Duran, Roberto Occhipinti, Chris Donnelly and Mike Ruby), Quebec-based Justin Time Records, and Hugh’s Room. We have been working with several other talented jazz artists including Fern Lindzon and Ori Dagan, Melissa Lauren and Roger Chong. Nine years ago Ms. Harbury created the Discoveries series at Hugh’s Room – the only prerequisite for the talent is that she likes the music - mostly acoustic artists which ensures minimal changeover time. Taking place about 3 or 4 times a year she presents four acts per night – this series is proving extremely successful and much sought-after. Success stories include J P Saxe, Ariana Gillis, Barbra Lica, Bora Kim.
