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Hitting the High Note
By Suzanne Thinnes, Communications Coordinator
A professional jazz vocalist who is also a lawyer by training and a business consultant by day, Jessica Lee (www.jessicaleesong.com) proves she has the ability to promote both Pittsburgh's business community and its jazz and blues heritage. Giving a whole new meaning to the term jazz-fusion, Jessica recognized the need to promote entrepreneurial thinking and attract talented individuals to Pittsburgh rather than larger competitive markets. Her vision of making Pittsburgh's business scene a more cohesive unit for creative thinking spawned Entrepreneurial Thursday at Dowe's on 9th Jazz Club in Downtown Pittsburgh, a unique blend of music and business savvy, with a little networking mixed in. While business owners and future entrepreneurs exchange business cards over drinks and appetizers named after Pittsburgh's jazz legends, Jessica creates a relaxing atmosphere where people can come on a regular basis to exchange ideas.
"There hasn't been a consistent weekly event that was casual enough to bring groups together," Lee said. "If it's the same place and the same time every week, then people don't really have to mark their calendars - they just come."
Jessica can be heard every Thursday evening between 5 pm and 8 pm performing sets of acoustic jazz and blues at the popular downtown nightspot. Teaming with guitarist Tony Janflone, Sr., who has played back up for Diana Ross, Ben Vereen and the Fifth Dimension, Jessica describes the pair's vocal/guitar duo as an outgrowth of their ongoing search to play the best music possible and to touch the most people. Between sets she interviews entrepreneurs about their companies and current business initiatives and promotes Pittsburgh's entrepreneurial spirit.
"There turned out to be this kind of weird fit between people who are very entrepreneurial and jazz," she notes. "We wanted music to be fun and entertaining but also wanted people to be comfortable to talk."
In fact, Jessica is just as happy if the patrons, generally a mix of business owners, job seekers, venture capitalists and non-profit managers, were too engrossed in their own conversations to pay attention to her.
With the support of Dowe's co-owners, trombonist Al Dowe and renowned jazz vocalist Etta Cox, Jessica used her own entrepreneurial skills to build Entreprenurial Thursday by e-mailing potential business professionals she met through building her own company, ViveVenture Counseling, an entrepreneurial, business and investment-counseling firm that advises clients on business issues ranging from planning and development to management team building and mediation. Starting in May 2001, a different company or organization serves as host for the weekly event, responsible for marketing the evening to their employees and clients. Recognizing the need for more women to be represented, she decided to reserve the first Thursday of each month for businesses owned and managed by women to spotlight their unique needs. The event itself holds little financial outlay for the sponsor - other than tipping the musician and soundman - since Jessica performs pro bono.
"The response from the business and professional community has been very strong," she said. "When I started this thing, I thought 'Oh my goodness, I'm not going to have enough companies in Pittsburgh. But the truth is, there aren't enough Thursdays in the year. I have featured entrepreneurial sponsors booked into June already, and the dates are filling up extremely quickly."
She credits the success of Entrepreneurial Thursdays to the strong desire of the entrepreneurial community to collaborate and to assist and learn from each other. "The casual environment of Dowe's enables networking and flexibility. People can drop in any time between 5 pm and 8 pm before leaving the city after work." Jessica observes. "I'm exploring starting up a non-profit venture to fund the event for its second year in order to cover costs, to pay musicians and to enable the event to continue to grow."
The non-profit organization, she explains, would work to increase the vitality of the city through arts and entertainment, to assist the city in attracting and retaining young professionals and to better serve its elderly population.
At age five Jessica began her formal music training by studying classical piano and music theory, training which served as a solid foundation for her next lasting endeavor - the vocal performance. While completing her undergraduate work in English and Economics, at Duke University, Jessica sang in cabaret theater and gospel choirs at local churches. It wasn't until the head of the University's jazz department introduced her to the music of Sarah Vaughen that she was hooked on jazz.
"He told me "You know signing, but you don't know music," she said.
A graduate of Duke University School of Law, Jessica is the founder and Managing Director of ViveVenture Counseling, an affiliate of Manulife Capital Corporation, a Boston-based merchant banking and venture capital firm that provides financial services to technology and life sciences companies. Throughout her professional career, Jessica has always held a professional interest in entrepreneurship. She has provided business-counseling services as special counsel to, or entrepreneur -in-residence with, the founders and executive managers of entrepreneurial clients and of institutional and ventures financing sources.
As for how long Jessica plans to continue Entrepreneurial Thursday: "I thought we'd run it like a musical - if we can get interest, we'll just keep it running."
To sponsor an upcoming Entrepreneurial Thursday contact Roy Ruzika, JTR Management at 724-228-8240 or e-mail ruzikar@pulsenet.com
SOURCES:
Eve Modzelewski, "Singer starts Entrepreneurial Thursdays to add more life to local innovation scene." Pittsburgh Post Gazette, October 11, 2001.
Maria Guzzo, "All That Jazz", Pittsburgh Business Times, August 24, 2001.
February 2002 |
