HISTORY

The initial idea for Follow the Music started when opportunity met vision. The opportunity came when 49er legend Ronnie Lott introduced artist manager/producer Phil Green to Drew Dunlevie, who was opening a new, state-of-the-art venue in Menlo Park called the Guild Theatre. During their initial conversation, Phil shared his passion for working with young artists, and Drew said he’d love to host an emerging artists event at the Guild.

Shortly thereafter, Phil had lunch with longtime talent agent / manager (John Lee Hooker, Mavis Staples, etc) Mike Kappus, who advised Phil of a plan he was developing to bring many of the top youth arts organizations together to share best practices, and host events in different venues around the Bay Area. Over the coming months, an advisory board of music, sports and entertainment professionals was formed to help identify an initial group of arts organizations, produce the kickoff event, and map out the longer term vision.

 The group recently joined forces with Sheila E., Jason Hofmann and Elevate Oakland.