The Music Forward Foundation returned to hold its annual brunch celebrating music industry leaders who have paved the way for helping young people in the business, an event that honored the band Incubus, the Lollapalooza festival, BMG, the Brooklyn Bowl and Gina Belafonte’s Sankofa, among others.
The Music Forward Brunch also paid tribute to two women who have been involved with the org in the past who died in the past year, Live Nation CFO Kathy Willard and Scoop publicist Maxie Solters, the latter being commemorated with the establishment of an internship in her name.
Hosted by KCRW air personality Novena Carmel, the awards banquet took place 51 floors above downtown L.A. at City Club Los Angeles, with hundreds of attendees noshing and applauding charitable efforts in an afternoon that ended with a set by celebrated singer Judith Hill.
Music Forward has been around in some form since 1993, when it began as the International House of Blues Foundation. At the helm for the last six and a half years has been executive director Nurit Siegel Smith, who said at the event’s outset that Music Forward exists “to remove those barriers to ensure that under-represented voices have a bridge into the industry and into life-long sustaining skills and careers. And in turn, the industry becomes more accessible, vibrant and inclusive for all.”
Incubus singer Brandon Boyd received the Tour Award (presented by Live Nation’s Geni Lincoln, president of the California region). The Executive Award went to Loud Records founder Steve Rifkind (presented by American Express VP Tatia Fox). Peter Shapiro accepted the Venue Award as the founder of the Brooklyn Bowl (presented by musician Eric Krasno). Lollapalooza won the Festival Award, accepted by the fest’s original 1991-97 tour manager, Stuart Ross (presented by Variety music critic Chris Willman). Gina Belafonte picked up the Community Award for Sankofa.org (presented by actor-director-producer Jesse Williams). BMG was the recipient of the Corporate Award (presented by the artist-songwriter Choklate).
“I’m Brandon. Hi everyone,” said Boyd, the seemingly mild-mannered frontman for the not-so-mild-mannered Incubus. “I’m the guy that brought a baby to an industry brunch,” he joked, after having handed off the (very quiet) infant he’d been cradling at a stageside table for much of the event. Boyd thanked Kimberly Hurtarte, who runs the group’s nonprofit, the Make Yourself Foundation.
“When we first formed our band Incubus, we started in 1991 and we were kids with big ideas,” Boyd said, “and we thought we could make our corner of the world a little bit cooler. Not unlike the Music Forward students we had the pleasure of hosting on our last U.S. tour, we really just were trying to express ourselves and make music and imagery that we thought needed to exist. I can think of hundreds of reasons why supporting young artists is of such high importance, and I doubt I need to remind anyone here of how and why we benefit from music, both the making of it and the enjoyment of it. But the fact that we’re finding ourselves om yet another incredibly strange and stressful cultural moment, it reminds me that encouraging young people towards activities and ways of life that have a tendency to draw people together and highlight our commonalities is decidedly better than resigning to what seems to be a worsening status quo.” He thanked the Music Forward Foundation and its partners for “providing an avenue to invest in the next generation of music industry professionals with wild dreams.”
Peter Shapiro, although accepting an award for his work with the Brooklyn Bowl, looked back on his years running the Wetlands club in New York, which hosted meetings from local orgs and activists during the day as well as rock shows at night.
Wetlands founder Larry Bloch “actually gave it (the club) to me,” Shapiro said. “He said, ‘You can pay me monthly. I was 23; I’m 52, and I’ve done a show every night since. You can hear it in my voice.” Before the internet, “the mission of Wetlands was to get people together to make a difference, not just at the show, but for environmental and social justice activism — groups like Rainforest Action Network, Amnesty International. Before the internet, it was like, how do we get people to meet at the library, at the school, at the city club, or at the rock club? And it was incredibly powerful in the basement of Wetlands before concerts to get young people to meet about issues. There was no meetup.org. And so I met Larry and he said, ‘If you agree to continue these meetings, I’ll give you Wetlands.’”
Shapiro talked about starting up the Brooklyn Bowl in Las Vegas, bucking some odds. He quoted the warnings of people who told him, “By the way, buddy, we love you, but you don’t do live music in Vegas. You’re not in a casino. You’re supposed to put the club in the casino. You are supposed to be doing a dance club with bottle service for David Guetta and Tiesto. No one’s coming to see Blues Traveler and the Roots and Agnostic Front and all your live music things — that doesn’t work in Vegas. … But we wish you good luck.” And, Shapiro said, “we almost didn’t make it. This stuff’s hard when you open a new venue, when you do live music, when you bet on bands that aren’t there yet. But we made it and we’re still going.”
Perry Farrell may be otherwise occupied at the moment, but Stuart Ross was on hand to accept the award for Lollapalooza — a festival he is well equipped to speak about as the only person who was on hand for all 288 shows during its tenure as a traveling show in the 1990s. “I don’t look like a person who would be at 288 (consecutive) shows,” he acknowledged.
Quipped Ross, “I guess I was asked to accept this award in lieu of my still-missing Emmy nomination for my breakout performance and starring role in the documentary ‘Lolla,’ which is still streaming on some short-haul Delta flights.” (The three-part documentary premiered on Paramount+ in May, with contributions from Ross.) “It’s funny when I got asked to do this, and I said, City Club, 51st floor downtown? I mean, it’s about the last place I would expect a rowdy alternative music festival to get an award. But here we are, and it’s about as out of context as us having Metallica on in 1996,” he joked, referring to the controversial decision to book a metal headliner for the alternative festival that year.
Ross thanked Lollapalooza originators Farrell’s manager, Ted Gardner, William Morris’ Peter Grosslight, Mark Geiger and Don Muller, who joined him back in the day in “trying to figure out how to put seven mid-level bands — mid-level at the time — alternative food vendors, political booths and subversive but very expensive art out on tour. We didn’t know how far to push the envelope because we didn’t know that we had an envelope. Well, we ended up changing the music business and the way people looked at live summer entertainment, lifestyle events and culture. It wasn’t our intention, but it was our result. Have you folks ever heard the theory that bumblebees can’t fly aerodynamically? If you take a bumblebee’s weight in comparison with their wingspan, they shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that and it flies. Anyway, that’s how we were able to tour a festival with back-to-back shows, because we didn’t know that we couldn’t. … It’s been my lifelong honor to be part of the founding team.”
Steve Rifkind echoed those remarks in his speech. “I started Loud Records in 1992, and it’s a lot like the Lollapalooza team: We didn’t know the word no, and we didn’t know what the rules were and we didn’t even know what the playing field was… I say these corny lines: The streets don’t lie and your eyes don’t lie and your ears don’t lie. You hear what you hear, you like what you like, and you see what you see. So that was our formula.” He offered a word of advice to those who follow in his wake: “Today there’s research, but there’s (less) development. Let’s find a happy medium, because you can’t really have one without the other.”
Siegel Smith led the tribute to two dearly departed friends of the foundation.
“Kathy Willard was the CFO of Live Nation for 20 years and Music Forward board member and treasurer for 10 of those years,” the executive director said. “Kathy was a formative and essential board member with us at Music Forward for over a decade. A leader and mentor to so many women across live entertainment; in navigating challenging situations, many think, ‘What would Kathy do?,’ to choose the most informative, tactical decision. She was a powerhouse. She is embedded into the fabric of our organization and her impact will continue to be felt at Music Forward and our communities for years to come.
“We also lost our friend and publicist Maxie Solters. Maxie brought a unique blend of creativity, passion, expertise and stardust to her work. Her infectious enthusiasm, positivity, innovative ideas and unwavering dedication made her an inspiration to us. Before she passed we piloted a program with her. Check out the impact,” Siegel Smith said, kicking to a video of an intern who had worked with Solters before her passing.
“In honor of our dear Maxie,” she continued, “we are creating the Maxie Gigternship with Pollstar. This internship program will provide invaluable hands-on experience to young people interested in music journalism. This program will honor Maxie’s memory by giving students a platform to explore their passions while contributing valuable content to the music community. We believe that the Maxie Gigternship with Pollstar will become a beacon of opportunity and creativity for young, aspiring music professionals and will serve as a lasting tribute to Maxie’s passion for music and dedication to empowering young creatives.”
At the outset of the program, Siegel Smith noted that “this year alone Music Forward will have provided 150 youth across the country with paid internships and performance opportunities.” Carmel added that the org’s initiatives “will reach thousands of young people across 46 states and in 49 countries through 80-plus programs, including workshops, career fairs, scholarships, classroom curriculum, internships, performance opportunities, grants and apprenticeships, placing nearly 100 emerging professionals and 50 artists into paid opportunities. Youth walk out of Music Forward programs with tools, resources, skills and a network to turn their passion for music into a life-sustaining profession.”
(Pictured above: Mike Gipson, Gina Belafonte, Taylor Gunther, Steve Rifkind, Lauren Kaiser Main, Stuart Ross, Peter Shapiro, Brandon Boyd and Nurit Siegel Smith.)
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