I landed a job at Guitar Center in Sherman Oaks selling synthesizers, which were all the rage at the time, and scores of famous artists and producers came down from Laurel Canyon, Coldwater Canyon, Encino Hills, and so on - all wanting the latest sounds on their records.

I met most of my clients at Guitar Center and made my career as a synthesizer mentor and consultant to rock and pop stars and producers.  I was a recording session keyboard player, synthesist, sound designer, and pre-production consultant for all kinds of artists and producers.  I finished up in LA as Staff Writer and Arranger at Avatar Records in Malibu working for blue-eyed soul Detroit producer, Harry Balk.

I eventually left Los Angeles and moved to Utah in the late 1980s and was soon a Teaching Assistant at the University of Utah for the Composer-in-Residence, Dr. Vladimir Ussachevsky.  Dr. U was an electronic music pioneer who co-founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Laboratory.  Dr. U. composed with a razor blade, stopwatch, and a reel-to-reel tape deck!  During my time at the U of U, I launched a film scoring program with the film department after I scored a soundtrack for a film that won an award at a NY film festival.

 

I got back into performing music in SLC's 1990s music scene with bands like The Committed, Blue Healer, Dick & Jane, Control, Saltifunk, H. Street, Chunga's Revenge, Ike Willis & Chunga's Revenge, and more.  The bands attracted agency representation, but when our agent moved out of the country, I took over his Planet Agency and grew it to an international scale by adding members of Frank Zappa, Jane's Addiction, George Clinton's P-Funk All-Stars, Rat Dog, Iggy Pop & The Stooges, The Minutemen and Wilco to the roster.

In 2003, I booked Ike Willis (Frank Zappa) for an all Zappa music festival in Germany where Willis was part of the documentary film, Rock School about the founder of School of Rock, Paul Green.  Green had brought his students from Philadelphia and Willis was impressed.  Green got my phone number from Willis to talk about growing his business and after two years of courtship, Green hired me to begin the national expansion of what became School of Rock.  I developed and supervised five western USA branches for those nice people until the company was sold.

In 2009 I started musicgarage.org  and ran that organization for ten years until the need for student financial aid became too much for me alone, so I started the nonprofit SLAM; Salt Lake Academy of Music.   Thousands of youth have enrolled in these programs over the last 18 years.  Average enrollment is at least 3.5 years, with kids performing on over 300 venue and festival stages, writing and recording original music, and making memories for a lifetime.

The inscription of Salt Lake City Weekly Newspaper's 2014 Best of Utah award says it all:

BEST MENTOR TO FUTURE ROCK STARS: MUSICGARAGE.ORG
Junior high can be some of the most difficult years in a young person’s life, and finding your passion and someone who believes in you can make all the difference. For many local young folks, MusicGarage.Org founder Steve Auerbach is that person. The music-education programs and private instruction available through MusicGarage.Org are often a kid’s bridge from feeling like an outcast to working toward a common goal with like-minded musicians. The kids are challenged through group sessions, as well as playing at local shows and festivals. When they graduate, they do so equipped with the tools to make a career out of playing music—or at least to do what they love for life.

My work is a privilege.  I sure do look forward to doing more in the future!

Steve

Business background on me at   https://linkedin.com/in/steveauerbach1