New Booker at Paramount

During hard financial times, non-profit organizations have to do more with less.

The new general manager at the Paramount Center for the Arts, Seth Soloway, wears many hats, from booking agent to box office manager to marketing and promotion. He also makes sure that performances run smoothly, that the facility is in shape and is the top guy on duty during shows.

“I’m excited about what I think we can do at the Paramount,” he said. “It’s an incredible, inspiring venue, first of all, and it’s someplace where I myself would want to do something creative if I’m lucky enough to ever get the chance.

Cityfolk have long come up to the suburbs and made transformative contributions to the landscape. Soloway, along with his wife, Jen, are no exceptions. In November 2010, they opened the Railroad Playhouse in what had been an historic, abandoned train station in Newburgh. The couple lives in Cornwall and Soloway commutes to the Paramount.

“I had outgrown the city,” he said. “I was born and raised there and felt it like had passed me by. I wanted to get out, have a family and do some cool arts stuff.”

The couple looked at a lot of places and since most of their connections were in the New York City area and they had family in the upstate suburbs, they moved to Cornwall. Before coming to the Paramount, Soloway worked as director of programming at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts and at a theatrical booking agency in Manhattan.

The 962-seat jewel box, which opened in 1930 as a premier movie house when film was a new art form, completed a renovation in 2007, so Soloway is inheriting a space in pristine shape.

Though he enjoys directing theater performances, he also has developed a specialty in booking acts that bring in the crowds but don’t pander to the lowest common denominator.

“This theater was built by the community and saved by the community in the 1980’s,” said Pat Braja, acting executive director at the Paramount. “Seth is a great addition to the team because the success of the organization relies on the strength of the programming. It helps with fundraising and it helps us continue to be an economic engine for the city and the Hudson Valley like it was when it opened."

Next year’s schedule is still a work in progress, he said, which is an anomaly. Usually, it would have been booked by now, but concern over soaring gas prices and other financial concerns have led to an extremely cautious environment.

“I am trying to get a fine mix going,” he said. “There are lots of more popular bands, large and small, who want to play at a nice place between Boston and New York City and we have to remember that we are a non-profit performing arts center and it’s important to serve the community for educational work and culture. It’s a tall order to strike a fine balance between popular entertainment and educational and community based activities.”

Branding can be difficult for an institution with a dual role, he said, but he will continue to serve his core audience, which includes classic rock and high-end stand up comics, but he also seeks to attract culturally diverse audiences.

Though he didn’t book the acts, the venue recently hosted the Fab Faux, a Beatles tribute band, and Peter Frampton, who is celebrating the 35^th anniversary of his blockbuster album “Frampton Comes Alive.”

Soloway has a long association with the arts, attending LaGuardia High School for the Performing Arts— the school depicted in the movie, “Fame.” Though he enjoys photography, hiking and fishing, directing is ultimately what he seeks to do.

He got sidetracked into administration when he decided to get an MFA degree in directing. His mentor pulled him aside and suggested that he go for a Masters in Arts Administration, which would allow him to become an artistic director.

“At first I thought he was crazy, but I looked into it and it made sense,” he said. He entered the program at Brooklyn College, met his wife, got a few internships and ended up at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts where he developed a taste for curating a series of live performances.

Despite his extensive responsibilities, he tries to help Braja fulfill her goals.

“At the end of the day, Pat [Braja] is the institutional leader,” he said. “She has a vision for how to build the institution. Programming is what I’m expert at and I will be working with her to help give Peekskill the best possible Paramount it can have.”   

At the core, Soloway is mainly moved by a reverence for live performance.

“I want to give people alternatives to television and the movies,” he said. “There’s something about being in room experiencing something collectively with an artist on stage. We’re here to make this not-for-profit, community-based art institution available to everyone who wants to take advantage of it.”