"Matching Great Musicians with Great Bands"
About Gigs For You
This Website and Our Mission
Our mission is to properly and professionally
represent the interests of the performer.
. . .GFY is everything entertainers need to find work and either create or
improve a career. . .
GFY’s mission for musicians is based on the philosophy of its founder, Brian Choper. Brian has seen what musicians want out of their careers, and has witnessed what works and what does not in order to get there. Brian is a drummer/percussionist and a “business coach” to musicians. He understands the many ways bands and other entertainers find quality work, has experienced the pros and cons of the agency world and has seen the best and worst of the promotional circuit.
The music business can be tricky, and Brian saw the need to try and help bands promote themselves…showing them how to make a living without the pressure of taking jobs they don’t want or are underpaid. He has developed a large network of talented artists, organizers, promoters and marketers. By organizing these resources into a network, he created Gigs For You.
About the Founder
Brian Choper —“The Entertainer’s Career Coach”
Brian Choper, the founder
of Gigs For You and
Washington's Entertainment Connection, is a multi-faceted individual who has formal
training in business (marketing and public relations) and in music. He is a
classically trained drummer/percussionist with more than 30 years experience in
music both nationally and internationally. He has performed both as guest artist
and as band leader since 1997. In 2001, he started his own bands. He currently
plays with four regular bands of his own while freelancing in many genres
including Rock & Roll, Latin, Swing, Jazz, Balkan and Klezmer. He is featured on
9 CD's, three of which he produced.
For much of his professional career, Brian has used his public relations skills
and training to market the bands for which he performs. It is no coincidence
that any of the bands with which Brian either runs or has worked with have
enjoyed success for so many years. Brian's influence transcends his musical
skills. Through his hands-on support, guidance and instruction, these bands did
not wait for success to knock-they went after it.
Career Highlights
Exploring Ethnic
Music, Jazz And Rock & Roll
In 1983, Brian won first prize at the Vienna International Music Festival for
classical timpani. While in college, Brian studied with George Huttlin and
Marshall Maley, drummer /percussionist, head of PAS VA. 1983 - 1985 Brian
studied with the late drummer Buddy Rich in New York. From 1984 - 1989, Brian
freelanced, playing shows and Ragtime in various bands and theatre groups, all
while working with the Prince George's Philharmonic Orchestra. Interested in
ethnic music, in 1985 Brian became the first drummer to play with the Capital
Klezmers, at the time, one of the top three Folk bands in the country. Upon
leaving this band in 1989, he joined the Machaya Klezmer Band as percussionist
and set drummer. In 1992, Brian was selected to participate in the International
Music Festival in Safed, Israel.
The Machaya Klezmer Band was not as well known when Brian first joined it, but
he loved their sound and was confident that the band had the potential to attain
national recognition. Just as in his first Klezmer band experience, this band
also had never performed with a drummer, and Brian thought he might be able to
add color to their sound by introducing some creative rhythms. This band had
already cut one album before he joined the group. Brian produced the group's
second CD (entitled "What A Machaya"), and is also featured on it. This CD
became the number two selling Folk album for 1997 (on the folk charts) and was
rated as such in the prestigious Moment Magazine (August, 1997). As a result of
Brian's public relations efforts and recognition with record distributors, the
Machaya Klezmer Band soon became one of the top billing Folk bands in the
country.
From 1997 through 2001, while still playing as a member of Machaya, Brian joined
Nexus, a highly respected local Rock Band. During this time he did a lot of
traveling throughout the United States and to Israel, Austria, Germany and other
European countries while on tour with his regular bands and as a guest musician
with other ensembles.
Managing Bands of His Own and Helping Other Bands Find Work on the Side
As Brian became more and
more interested in Jazz drumming, in 2001 he left Machaya, and after performing
at the Lansing Michigan Jazz Festival that Fall and meeting many of the
performers attending, he decided to work with some of them and start his own
Jazz/Klezmer band, and the
Kol Haruach Klezmer Band
(www.kolharuach.com
and
www.newklezmerquintet.com)
was born. In 2003, following the success of this Klezmer band, with his
continued intrigue with Jazz and classic Rock & Roll, he organized
The Choper Jazz Project,
The Jazz Connection,
and The
Nexus Rock Band.
(Nexus is named after his 1997 Rock band, a group that has become one of his
favorites.)
The Choper Jazz Project
(www.choperjazzproject.com)
plays more straight up Jazz,
The Jazz Connection
(www.the-jazz-connection.com)
plays upbeat Swing, and
Nexus
(www.NexusRockBand.com)
plays the Pop Rock and the complex Rock & Roll of the 70's and 80's, with a
twist of improvisation. Brian is currently working on new releases for all of
these groups.
See Brian's personal website at www.brianchoper.com
To contact Brian directly call him at 301-441-8899.
Brian has always provided business advice to bands and band leaders as they have approached him. Feel free to blog him at: http://washingtonsmusicianconnection.blogspot.com
