About

Giant Creative Services, led by Chris Esparza, is behind the idea to create Left Coast Live that matches great venues with innovative live music.

What started as an idea quickly became a movement for revival of live music downtown.  Members of the community group South Bay Live helped refine ideas, do research and move this idea into reality.  This group included: Richard Adoradio of Thriving Artists, Gustavius Aiton of Resonant Frequency Records, Tommy Aguilar of UnGrammar, Matt Beasley of Lumina Music Group, Michael Brilliot of Jazz Mechanics, Lisa Dewey of Kitchen Whore Records and Barbara Wahli of Barb Rocks Presents.

Giant Creative Services has been producing community events for over two decades, where the emphasis has always been high quality and high community engagement.  Giant establishes its work in cultural and civic development for economic and community benefit.

The Left Coast Live management team is made up of Chris Esparza, Michael Brilliot, Sheila Bernus Dowd and John Dowd.  Michael is an accomplished musician and works with all LCL bands and venues. Sheila leads our sponsorship and sales team.  She consults with companies on social media outreach and fund raising strategies. John heads up tech support and keeps an eye out on good places to eat and listen to music.

Left Coast Live is a labor of love that would not be possible without our team of staff, volunteers and interns.

Music Booking Team: Thomas Aguilar, Amy Anderson, John Blatchford, Michael Brilliot, Jeff Brummett, Chris Esparza, Lisa Dewey, Michael Grammer, Bruce Labadie, Juan Pablo López Manjarrez, Michael Solari, Will Sprott, and Barbara Wahli

Booking Coordinator: Barbara Wahli

Assistant Creative Directors: Thomas Aguilar and Will Sprott

Programming Partners: Halfden Hussey and Mike Rabehl of Cinequest Film Festival; Brendan Rawson and Josh Russell, 1st Act; Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics  (CCRMA); Adam Somers of CCRMA; San Jose Jazz, Fritzo, Matt and Lucky and the rest of the Bring It Back crew.

Design: Tamiko Rast of Rasteroids and Quynh–Mai Nguyen

Sponsorship: Tim Littlefield and Liraz Abraham

Publicity: Edita Rodriguez

Blog Editors: Barbara Wahli and Sheila Bernus Dowd

Social Media/Outreach Team: Robin Miller, Michael Grammar, Amalia Renteria, Kate Agena, and Andre Hayes

Production: Annie Hermes, Claudia Harvey, and AJ Sioson and the B Box Productions Team

Volunteers: Vicky Van and Lauren Ingram

Legal: Structure Law Group

Radio Partners at Channel 92.3 and KFOX: Justin, Jaysson, Michael, Tim, Sharon, and Freddie

*If you are interested in contacting anyone on the Left Coast Live staff, all email addresses are in following format: firstname[at]leftcoastlive[dot]com
(except for grammer[at]leftcoastlive[dot]com)

***** Meet the Faces Behind the Blog *****

Whether it is for 50 or 10,000, Sheila can throw one heck of a party – the kind that is talked about for days and either raises a ton of money for a worthy cause or garners her client’s brand stellar coverage. With being an official soccer mom, PTA president, founder of Clever Girls Collective, producer of Left Coast Live, Chief TechMom at Lookiloos.com, and social media blogger under the pseudonym Xioalinmama under her belt, Sheila can be considered a crusader of social media – setting social media trends one day at a time.

Barbara Wahli (aka Barb Rocks) is recognized for putting on highly-organized and well-attended shows at reputable venues in the San Jose Bay Area. Barbara also supports various artists in band management, show bookings, tour scheduling, publicity, and promotions. Barbara was one of the core group members of the community outreach movement that created Left Coast Live and is proud that these endeavors have resulted in such an amazing music festival. Enjoy her tweets: @barbrocks

Robin Miller graduated May 2010 from San Jose State with a Bachelor of Science in Public Relations and a focus in Business. Born in San Francisco, this hippy at heart enjoys traveling, attending festivals and concerts, going to Giants games, planning events and all things social media.

Follow her on Twitter: @robinwithani

http://robinwithani.wordpress.com

Amalia Renteria is a Public Relations Major at San Jose State with a minor in Sociology. She has interned for Asian Man Records, an independent record label located in Los Gatos and for Teatro Vision, a Chicano theater in San Jose. Once she graduates, she hopes to one day work to promote the arts and culture as a way to create inspiration and change in the local community.

Michael Grammer (know to his peers as just “Grammer”) is the co-founder of Newsense, and independent, Bay-based events and marketing business. Since 2008, Grammar has collaborated with a plethora of creative minds to put on events that aid their communities and promote various genres of art, music, ideas, and lifestyles that are not typically exposed through mainstream media outlets.