Kat Harlton
Photo: Provided via artist / MPC
Music Publishers Canada (MPC) recently announced the six talented producer-songwriters selected for its 2026 Women in the Studio National Accelerator, which supports the professional growth of music producers from across Canada.
Celebrating its eighth year in 2026, MPC’s Women In The Studio National Accelerator is designed to provide each cohort of producer-songwriters with skills development and networking opportunities that may otherwise be inaccessible to them.
The program focuses on topics including technical and songwriting skills, branding, and financial literacy. Participants are provided with opportunities for creative collaborations as well as networking with music industry professionals and mentors. Each producer, as a condition of acceptance, also agrees to explore volunteer opportunities in their own community.
The Accelerator runs from June to October and the sessions and workshops take place virtually and in person. The in-person residency program will take place in Toronto in July 2026.
I had the opportunity to chat with Kayee, a Women In The Studio 2026 participant about why this program is important, what she looks forward to learning, and the biggest challenge she’s faced in the industry thus far.
Kat: Can you talk about what it means for you to be selected as part of the 2026 Women In The Studio Cohort?
Kayee: It’s exciting, and I’m very grateful. Women in the Studio is such a great platform for women behind the scenes, like songwriters, producers, & engineers, to showcase and hone their craft. While many of us are also artists, I love that WITS highlights the grunt work and technical skill it takes to make a record. I’m blown away each year at the calibre of women that emerge from this program and stoked to be considered among their ranks. It’s great now that there’s been so many years of WITS and multiple cohorts; there’s a little community forming. It’s only gonna keep growing, which is the point – eventually we want women in music to be the norm!
Kat: What do you hope to take away from it?
Kayee: I’m really looking forward to getting a better general understanding of how the Canadian music industry works, to see all the moving pieces between artists, labels, marketing, PR, etc. Above all, I hope I walk away with a newfound and lasting community – nothing is more isolating than making music in a vacuum.
Kat: What do you find is the most challenging part of being a female producer/artist?
Kayee: A huge challenge for me personally is feeling like I always have to show the most perfect, polished versions of what I’m working on in order to be taken seriously as a producer. Female producers have to work harder to gain artists’ trust, sometimes even for female artists. We’re all guilty of implicit bias, and I’m no exception: for the longest time, I identified solely as a songwriter, and meanwhile I would be doing everything short of actually running the session on my laptop. I could write and record the chords for the entire song, send loops and samples, suggest ways to process a sound, vocal produce and comp and tune everything, and I never thought that meant I was producing. I thought maybe I was just a really involved songwriter, which is hilarious. So I think owning the role of producer and affirming it to myself is important, so that I can be a little more open and less protective about the process. Some of the coolest ideas come from having an involved collaborator the whole way through, and I don’t want to miss out on that.
Kat: What has been a career highlight for you so far? What have you learned along the way?
Kayee: So many. I’ve been able to travel a bit and collaborate internationally. Last year I went to Brazil and wrote with some incredible people and in genres unique to the country, such as Sertanejo and Phonk, which were new to me. Such a musically diverse place with a thriving live music culture, I felt very inspired from that trip. More recently, I scored my first trailer! I frequently assist an LA-based composer, Mark Evans, and we got to write some of the promo music for the new “Spider-Noir” series. It was such an insane learning experience – composing is a whole different beast with crazy deadlines and monstrous ableton projects. I also love that I get to put my classical music background to use in this kind of work; it feels very full circle.
Kat: What’s next?
Kayee: A lot of changes – I’ll be moving to LA to compose more trailers/media, while working with some artists based there! I also want to revive the “Kayee” moniker and release music of my own.
Connect With Kayee
https://www.instagram.com/camakayee
https://www.tiktok.com/@camakayee
https://www.youtube.com/@camakayee
To learn more about the Women In The Studio program visit: https://www.musicpublishing.ca/women-in-the-studio