If you've been reading rock nyc for any length of time, you'll have read more than your own fair share of reviews from Central Park's Summerstage. A part of the City Park's Foundation, Summerstage has been providing free music of world class caliber to New Yorkers for over a quarter of a century.
Summerstage has always been a blast but if it feels like a bigger, wider blast in the past decade, part of the thanks must go to Artistic Director Erika Elliott. Ms Elliott, an LA native, is another reason to wonder which is the Best Coast. rock nyc had the pleasure of speaking with Ms. Elliott and followed up with written questions. The interview will be posted soon but we thought we'd give you a brief introduction to the gifted woman.
Since arriving in New York 1997 for the sole purpose of joining Loud Records, Ms. Elliott has made herself a fixture on the local music scene. At Loud Records she worked with owner Steve Rifkind and a close knit group of fellow employees who were more like friends, where "ideas in meetings soon become real", And that reality brought us album like Big Pun's classic Capital Punishment. This was a special time for hip hop and she was at ground zero.
Ms. Elliott left from there to William Morris and from William Morris to S.O.B.'s (Sounds Of Brazil) , where she was the talent booker for their urban music programing, and invented the SoulCity showcase, giving opportunity for the likes of Anthony Hamilton and Kanye West among many others, before they even had a recording contract.
Ms. Elliott joined Summerstage as Talent Buyer in 2004 and in 2010, in time to handle Summerstage's 25th year anniversary, was named Artistic Director.
Under her watch, Summerstage has expanded into parks in all boroughs, and Ms. Elliott claims that one of her greatest pleasures has been in bringing popular hip hop and r&b performers to places the audience never thought they'd find them. In 2010, she was responsible for 110 free shows across the 5 Boroughs. Also, World Music has become more prevalent than ever. I complained about the long lines and Ms. Elliott explained that it wasn't solely because of popularity but also because of more stringent fire laws in Manhattan. In he 1990s, Summerstage was something of secret (not unlike Yankee Stadium in the 1980s) but today every show is very popular. Interestingly, Ms. Elliott noted that for free concerts they have to be careful as to just how popular the artist performing is.
On a personal level, Ms. Elliott said that meeting and listening to the legendary South African trumpeter, was a high point of her tenure at Summerstage (so far!), though there are a couple of very special moments every year.
Sorry for the lack of direct quotes in this post, I spoke with her from work.
However, the next interview will be all direct quotes and completely fascinating!
