Silicon Valley Rocks

Tech professionals by day, garage rockers by night. They’ll pick up their instruments and venture onto the big stage to let their rocking alter egos shine…For a good cause and the love of music.

Silicon Valley Rocks! will bring together the Valley’s tech community - from VCs and entrepreneurs to bloggers and software developers - to raise money for Music in Schools Today (MuST), a Bay Area non-profit that seeks to rescue music programs from budget cuts.

The showcase will feature Silicon Valley bands and original rockers! The SVR selection committee - a mix of music and tech professionals – will choose the final line-up for a show that will entertain and amuse your entire social graph. The evening will close with drinks, DJs, and dancing.

Keep music in schools

All proceeds for Silicon Valley Rocks! will be donated to Music in Schools Today (MuST). MuST is the Bay Area’s answer to the crisis in music education. Despite extensive research indicating that music instruction supplies intellectual, emotional and physical components critical to children’s development, music and arts programs are often the first victims of budget cuts. MuST advocates for, supports and develops integrated, accessible, sustainable and measurable music-in-education programs that improve student achievement.

Who we are

Alison Murdock, Founder
Silicon Valley Rocks! is produced by Alison Murdock, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and tech consultant. Alison has over 16 years in the tech events business and was previously co-founder and president of Dealmaker Media. Alison is a vocalist, an occasional keyboard player, and an aspiring bass guitar player.

June Sargent, Advisor
June Sargent is a longtime expert in audience development and consumer marketing, with a specialty in print publishing and online media. She has more than 25 years experience in the publishing and direct marketing fields with U.S. and international companies. And, she used to sing in a rock band.

Meg Madden, MuST
Meg Madden has directed Music in Schools Today since 1990. She has worked as assistant to Dr. Frank Oppenheimer at the Exploratorium and as Community Relations Manager under Dr. Richard LeBlond at the San Francisco Ballet. She serves as Site Director for the Music in Education National Consortium and serves on the San Francisco Symphony Education Committee. She appears frequently in both traditional and new media (check her out on YouTube). She enjoys hand-drumming and played ukelele in a girls band in her college days.

David Schwartz, Board Chair, MuST
After earning degrees in engineering and business, David Schwartz pursued his first love and joined Wally Heider Recording Studios, in San Francisco, where he got a working view of many of his favorite recording artists in their creative chambers. This experience triggered his desire to shine the light on the great, but underappreciated, work of studio engineers and producers, leading him to focus on their contributions in the pages of Mix magazine, which he co-founded in 1976. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Mix for nearly 18 years, and along the way produced over 25 music industry events, including the San Francisco Music Fair, Music and Multi-Media, and MusicBiz 2005. His latest project is a book about to be released by Berklee Press called MusicSmarts, Survival Tips from the Pros.

Mike Kappus, Vice Chair, MuST
Mike Kappus founded The Rosebud Agency in 1976 with the intention of focusing on an intentionally limited number of artists whose music is timeless rather than trend-driven. In addition to having represented artists as diverse as Captain Beefheart, Muddy Waters and The Staple Singers, Kappus has managed the careers of J J Cale, John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars and more. As producer and executive producer he has worked with Van Morrison, Carlos Santana, Ry Cooder, Eric Clapton and more on records that earned 12 Grammy nominations and 4 wins. The solar powered Rosebud Agency was among the first certified green businesses in San Francisco. In addition to Rosebud projects and acting as vice chair of Music In Schools Today, Kappus is currently involved on projects for Global Exchange human rights organization, Amnesty International, the Obama campaign and several other projects.