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Tag: music

Allianz named title sponsor of Richmond amphitheater

Allianz Partners will be the naming sponsor for Richmond’s forthcoming 7,500-capacity, $30 million outdoor amphitheater, the global insurer announced Tuesday.

The Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront, a project led by Charlottesville’s Red Light Ventures and Live Nation, is expected to open next year in time for the summer concert season, according to the announcement. The amphitheater is the first new major concert venue in Richmond in decades, and is set on four acres near the banks of the James River, near CoStar’s Richmond campus and Tredegar.

“We are thrilled to be a part of bringing this exciting new entertainment venue to the Richmond community,” Jeff Wright, CEO of Richmond-based Allianz Partners USA, said in a statement. “Our leadership team, along with the hundreds of our associates who live and work in Central Virginia, eagerly anticipate opening night and many future summers filled with incredible music against the backdrop of our beautiful city.” Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The amphitheater’s expected to host 30 shows a season and generate $30.6 million in economic impact annually, as well as creating 300 jobs, according to the announcement. Red Light Management, founded by Coran Capshaw, represents dozens of major music artists, including Dave Matthews Band, Chris Stapleton, Sabrina Carpenter and others.

Capshaw also developed the Ting Pavilion on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall and owns the Jefferson Theater, also in Charlottesville. He founded Starr Hill Presents and Musictoday, which concert promoter Live Nation purchased in 2006, but Capshaw reacquired the entertainment marketing company in 2017 after a later purchaser went bankrupt.

“We’re excited to have Allianz Partners join us as we bring a new destination for live music to downtown Richmond,” Capshaw said in a statement.

Arts | Entertainment | Sports 2023: CORAN CAPSHAW

Capshaw, the founder of 32-year-old music management company Red Light Management, is the driving force behind a newly approved 7,500-capacity riverfront amphitheater in Richmond. The $30 million project, expected to open in 2025, has drawn comparisons to Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre. Capshaw also developed the Ting Pavilion on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall and the Ascend Amphitheater in Nashville, Tennessee.

It’s the latest victory for the music lover who got his start booking Dave Matthews Band shows at a Charlottesville bar in the 1990s. DMB is now one of dozens of acts on Red Light’s roster, which also includes Phish, Maren Morris, the Smashing Pumpkins and Brandi Carlile. In 2000, Capshaw and Matthews co-founded ATO Records, an independent record label that includes artists Alabama Shakes, Drive-By Truckers, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Black Pumas.

In addition to his other music ventures — which include e-commerce and marketing company Musictoday and concert promoter Starr Hill Presents — Capshaw also co-founded Starr Hill Brewery and provided financial backing for solar companies Sun Tribe Solar and Sun Tribe Development.

Metallica acquires Alexandria records maker

Master of puppets — and now master of vinyl record production, legendary heavy metal band Metallica has acquired a majority interest in Alexandria-based vinyl records maker Furnace Record Pressing.

Financial terms of the transaction, which the two entities announced Tuesday, were not disclosed.

“We couldn’t be more happy to take our partnership with Furnace … to the next level,” Metallica co-founder and drummer Lars Ulrich said in a statement. “Their indie spirit, the passion they have for their craft … culturally, we’re kindred souls.”

Furnace has produced more than 5 million Metallica vinyl pieces since 2014. The band and records maker worked together on deluxe box set editions of “Kill ’Em All,” “Ride the Lightning,” “Master of Puppets,” “…And Justice for All,” “Metallica” — also known as “The Black Album” — and “S&M2.”

Founded in 1996, Furnace produces records in a 70,000-square-foot facility in Alexandria using 12 Pheenix Alpha presses and two Finebilt presses, making it one of the largest record pressing companies in the U.S. Last year, the records maker pressed 3.1 million records. Furnace offers standard and heavyweight pressings, color vinyl, special effect color vinyl and custom vinyl etching, and it oversees services related to the creation and packaging of records.

Furnace has 107 employees, all of whom will remain in their current roles. Three Furnace executives — founder and CEO Eric Astor, Chief Operating Officer Ali Miller and Vice President of Manufacturing Operations Mark Reiter — will continue to be equity owners and will serve on the company’s board of directors.

“Building Furnace into the dedicated and experienced family of experts that it is today has been a huge effort, but immensely gratifying,” Astor said in a statement. “Knowing our long-term future is secured while also being better able to take advantage of growth opportunities is really exciting for every member of the Furnace staff.”

Metallica last produced a studio album, “Hardwired…to Self-Destruct,” in 2016. The band gathered a lot of attention and a new generation of fans last summer when its song “Master of Puppets” was featured in the Season 4 finale of Netflix sci-fi hit “Stranger Things.” Metallica’s newest album, “72 Seasons,” will be released on April 14, and Furnace will press records of the album.

Something in the Water will return to Va. Beach in 2023

Music superstar and Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams announced Wednesday that his signature three-day music festival, Something in the Water, will again be held in Virginia Beach on April 28-30, 2023, after the festival moved to Washington, D.C., this summer.

The inaugural Something in the Water festival was held on the Virginia Beach Oceanfront in April 2019, before the pandemic caused its cancelation in 2020 and 2021. Williams announced the next iteration of the festival at the second day of his Mighty Dream forum in Norfolk. Speaking on stage, surrounded by officials from Virginia Beach, Williams preceded the news by saying, “It’s all about the 757.”

“The demand for the festival in Virginia Beach and the 757 — among the people — has never wavered. If anything it has only intensified,” Williams said in a statement. “College Beach Weekend continues every year and the city of Virginia Beach leaders have been eager to reconcile and move forward. The environment is finally optimized for return and the announcement will delight everyone — from HBCU students across the eastern USA to the hundreds of small businesses who will play a role in the festival to the cities within the region and neighborhoods that will serve as hosts. I need to come back home. There is a pervasive feeling by almost everyone that the festival belongs in Virginia Beach, and the time is right to bring it back.”

“It is exciting to be so close to the possible return of the Something in the Water festival,” Virginia Beach Mayor Bobby Dyer said in a statement. “The city and Mr. Williams have negotiated what I think are mutually beneficial draft terms in good faith. We sincerely appreciate Mr. Williams and his willingness to bring this marquee event back home, and we look forward to hearing from the public Nov. 15.”

Virginia Beach City Council will discuss a contract for the festival and accept comments from the public during its Nov. 15 meeting and will vote on whether to approve the festival on Dec. 6. Dyer walked back an earlier, more effusive statement welcoming the festival’s return, replacing it with the newer statement acknowledging the required public comment and council vote to approve the city’s contract with the festival.

The proposed contract between the city and the festival includes a $500,000 financial contribution from Virginia Beach. The festival would be held between 4th and 15th streets at the Oceanfront and the city would provide in-kind contributions such as the use of various resort stages for concerts, use of public parking lots, city public safety and public works personnel “already programmed for College Beach Weekend,” city support to use school buses and availability of the Virginia Beach Convention Center.

The last time Something in the Water was held in Virginia Beach, the hotel occupancy rate for the event was about 90% throughout the city and hovered between 94% and 96% in the Resort area, and 86% throughout Hampton Roads, according to an economic analysis done by Old Dominion University. Hotel revenue generated $4.85 million for all of Hampton Roads, including $2.2 million in Virginia Beach. According to the OCU report, the economic impact of Virginia Beach-based and visitor ticket holders was $21.76 million, with resulting tax revenue of $1.19 million and a total economic impact of $24.11 million across Hampton Roads.

In September 2021, Williams wrote a letter to Virginia Beach’s city manager saying that he would not be bringing the 2022 festival to his hometown because of the city’s “toxic energy,” citing his cousin Donovon Lynch’s 2021 killing by a Virginia Beach police officer and a special grand jury’s finding of no probable cause to charge the officer. That, combined with other issues surrounding Williams’ economic development projects in the city, made Williams decide to move the festival, which yielded $24 million in local economic impact in 2019, to Washington, D.C. for 2022.

The Something in the Water website displays the location and dates of the third festival.

Tickets for the 2023 Something in the Water festival will go on sale on Nov. 5. The first two hours of ticket sales will be limited to Hampton Roads residents — “the 757,” Williams said. Performers will be announced later, according to the Something in the Water website.

 

 

Richmond Symphony executive director stepping down

David Fisk, the executive director of the Richmond Symphony since 2002, will be leaving this fall to become president and CEO of the Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina.

Born in Great Britain, Fisk is a graduate of Manchester University and the Royal Northern College of Music, where he studied piano accompaniment, harpsichord, composition and conducting. He will start his new position Aug. 31, the Charlotte Symphony announced Wednesday.

“It’s with mixed emotion that we share the news that our Executive Director David Fisk will be stepping down this fall after 18 years of fearless leadership,” the Richmond Symphony said in a tweet Wednesday.

Although the symphony has not performed to in-person audiences since March, its weekly summer series is streaming live this year, starting Thursday. This year’s theme is Beethoven, who celebrates his 250th birthday in 2020.

 

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