Law school or music. That was the choice Beverly Hills resident Matt Rappaport faced when graduating from the University of Michigan in 2003. Though he studied at U-M’s prestigious Stephen M. Ross School of Business, Rappaport loved to perform and played with his band Collision Six on school breaks. It was ultimately a mentor who would convince him to pursue his passion.
“[He said], ‘It seems like the music you’re writing is really good, and it would be a shame for you to look back later in life and [think] you never really tried,’” Rappaport says.
Twenty years later, Rappaport is the CEO and founder of Detroit Event Company, a musical entertainment booking agency for weddings, proms, bar mitzvahs and other events. He is also the band leader of Collision Six and performs with them as a guitarist and vocalist. The combination, he says, allows him to combine his passion with his skills, with a professional tagline: “At home at the intersection of music and business.”
“I love business, and I love music, and the fact that I get to make music my business is awesome,” he said.
The path to his current success wasn’t linear. After graduation, Rappaport moved to East Lansing to be near his bandmates and concentrate on their music, and they nearly got their big break.
Rappaport’s brother happened to be friends with the son of a successful band manager who liked their three-track EP but wanted more. With no money for professional audio, the band gathered around an answering machine to record more of their songs and sent them off.
At this point, however, Rappaport was getting tired of college life and took a job in accounting. When they heard back about their recording, the band manager told them that while it was a close decision, he had ultimately decided to sign another band, Seether. That band would go on to become a worldwide success, but for Rappaport, it was a sign to move on.
“For me, that was the official, ‘Alright this wasn’t meant to be an original band’ [moment], so we shifted our focus.”
Collision Six became mostly a cover band, but eventually founding members began to move on with careers, marriages and kids. Rappaport also got married and continued with his accounting career but kept playing with Collision Six, now with new members, including his wife, Sarah.
In the early 2010s, the band signed on with an entertainment booking agency to become a part-time wedding and event band. Meanwhile, his wife planned to leave her teaching job to open two tutoring franchises of the Tutoring Center. As Rappaport began doing more band management in addition to performing, he realized he could start his own entertainment booking agency. The couple made plans to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams: he would continue his primary accounting job until his wife’s business was profitable, then would transition to his own agency full-time.
In 2015, Rappaport founded Detroit Event Company with another band leader. At the onset, the two focused on their own respective bands, but the business eventually grew to include more entertainers, and Rappaport took over the company in 2016.
Now, Detroit Event Company offers a concierge service to match event organizers with an array of live bands, musicians, DJs and event production. Eventually he’d like to grow the business to become Metro Detroit’s go-to entertainment company. Sarah also plans to transition to working for the agency full time, and the couple — now with two small children — is currently in the process of selling their tutoring business.
While his career path may not be quite what he expected, Rappaport loves what he does and says his unconventional career path prepared him for what he does today.
“I just love that feeling of being on stage and playing live with people — and I also really love business,” he says. “I’m so glad I learned the skills that I did at business school, and I was able to work in a professional environment and work my way up."
“I love that feeling of being on stage and playing live with people — and I also really love business.”