Students with the Duke Ellington School of the Arts Radical Elite Show Band performed at a reception prior to the event. Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, and the band’s front man, Troy Andrews, who is a fierce advocate for music education, met with students before the event and gave the audience an energetic performance of their own. All proceeds from the evening will go to the Ellington Fund to support the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, which has offered an arts curriculum for public school students in the District for more than 40 years.
“Musicians are at the heart of everything we do,” SoundExchange President and CEO Michael Huppe said. “Without them our industry wouldn’t exist. That’s why we fight every day to make sure artists are fairly compensated across all platforms, whenever their art is used.”
Huppe continued: “We are grateful to Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, to the Radical Elite Show Band and to all of our sponsors for helping us produce an event that reminds all of us in Washington about the importance of music education and the need to protect the interests and rights of musicians so we preserve the future of music.”
“At the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, we are deeply committed to providing a solid education to our future musicians and artists. It was an honor to be with Trombone Shorty and with SoundExchange, who are as committed to the future of music and music education as we are. Thanks to Trombone Shorty for being such great role model and to SoundExchange for hosting a wonderful evening and for all the work they do to ensure artists are compensated fairly on all platforms,” Desepe DeVargas, Head of School.
SoundExchange and an honorary host committee comprised of 26 Members of Congress hosted the event. The honorary host committee included Rep. Marsha Blackburn, Sen. Bill Cassidy, Rep. Judy Chu, Rep. David Cicilline, Rep. Doug Collins, Rep. John Conyers, Rep. Suzan Delbene, Rep. Ted Deutch, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Al Franken, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Sen. Chuck Grassley, Rep. Garret Graves, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Rep. Darrell Issa, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Rep. Billy Long, Rep. Tom Marino, Rep. Jerry Nadler, Rep. Cedric Richmond, Rep. Thomas Rooney, Rep. Adam Schiff, Rep. Lamar Smith, Sen. David Vitter and Rep. Mimi Walters. Sponsors of Thursday’s event include: Jenner & Block, Wells Fargo, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Acumen Solutions, NBCUniversal, SAG-AFTRA, The Recording Academy, RIAA, ACG Advocacy, ten mile SQUARE, The Meltzer Group, NMPA and KIND.
SoundExchange’s advocacy efforts are focused on protecting the rights of the creators of sound recordings � the recording artists who perform them and the record labels who invest in them.