A Wild Night o in the Fore
My Team Made Magic With the Chainsmokers
M any years ago — way before I was a successful business owner, event producer, husband, and father — I was just a skinny kid living in a two- bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side. I followed the same ritual almost every night of the week. After my brother and sister fell asleep, I quietly pulled out my Discman CD player, headphones, and glowsticks. A few button pushes sent the beats of David Morales’ “Space Cowboy’’ thumping into my eardrums. Then, I faced the mirror on the back of my closet door and silently turned our shared bedroom into my own personal rave. I can’t count the number of nights I spent like that, spinning my glow sticks to the beat and raving away with my reflection to tracks from DJs like Morales and Tiësto! Music drove my life from the time I was small, whether it was the salsa and merengue of the Latin American crowd that liked to hang out in front of my dad’s pizza shop on 84th and Amsterdam, or the hip-hop that always seemed to be the music of choice for basketball games in Riverside Park. Everywhere I went in New York, music led the way, changing with the culture, sport, fashion, or food of the minute. At home, my Israeli father showed off his Middle Eastern culture with music heavy on drums, electric guitar, and violin. He had a
huge collection of records from the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s that he loved to work his way through on Sunday mornings. My mom was an award-winning pianist and a little bit of a prodigy. She was always sitting at the piano with us kids teaching us scales. Thanks to her genes, my brother, sister, and I can all pick up pretty much any instrument and play it! When I traveled abroad to Israel during my freshman year of college, that musicality came in handy. I quickly became the guy who organized nights out for all of the Americans studying abroad. Each adventure started with a different kind of music: salsa, merengue, hip-hop, EDM. There was a different flavor for anyone who might want to come out and attend. Looking back, it’s no surprise that the kid with endless “Summer Mix” CDs rattling around in his car grew up to become a DJ and event designer! Booking talent and entertainment for corporate events is one of my favorite parts of the job. I’m always thinking about the audience: What will drive them forward? What will excite them? Which artist could they go on a journey with? If I book a great band but the audience doesn’t understand them, or their music doesn’t match the environment, then the event won’t be cohesive. Every element of an event plays off every other element — music included. Often, this works out perfectly. I’ll never forget the 2015 WeWork Summer Camp my team and I designed in the middle of nowhere in the Adirondacks. The audience was
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