45 Riots provides hand-crafted, energized live-music ensembles for high-end private parties and gala corporate affairs. Founded in late 2011 in New York City by a full-time, professionally gigging bassist, musical director, and producer (our CEO), 45 Riots has grown to perform up to 150 events per year in addition to maintaining a busy NYC nightclub schedule (*pre-COVID) and backing up renowned music artists in concert.

We have years of experience performing top-tier private engagements at the finest New York area concert venues, halls, hotels, and lofts. 45 Riots has set the vibe at corporate events ranging from galas and fundraisers to product launches, multi-day conferences, and grand holiday affairs organized by global-reaching brands.

Our mission is to offer clients a sincere live-music onstage performance, bringing a genuine NYC concert experience to private events with jam-packed dance floors from start to finish.

45 Riots curates a personalized performance for each client based on their stylistic tastes. Our ensembles are constructed of top-tier musicians who have been playing together for years and years, regularly with 45 Riots but also sharing stages together outside of our event calendar, be it touring with celebrity music artists around the world, playing frequently with one another in the NYC nightclub scene, or recording on each other’s albums in the studio.

Our ensembles boast a palpable synergy together onstage with a vibrant personality and a huge diversity of style and repertoire, from cutting-edge Top 40 pop music just released to classic soul, funk, R&B, dance, house, hip-hop, rock, pop-rock, indie-alternative, reggae, jazz, and more. We use the music we cover as a vehicle to express our own artistry and talent while engaging the audience and building a kinetic momentum in our dance sets; we thrive on performing our own unique arrangements, medleys, and mashups of popular songs, and allowing the musicians to improvise and create onstage, all for discerning clients who truly value a genuine live-music experience.

Our in-house record label produces quality creative and original recordings and media which highlight our 45 Riots musicians, spanning varied musical genres from urban pop and R&B to house music, jazz, and ethereal world music. Some of our recent releases have enjoyed national radio airplay and have peaked on the Billboard Top 30 Adult R&B charts in the US and the MusicWeek Top 10 Club charts in the UK, with music videos featured on MTV, BET, Music Choice, and more. The 45 Riots record label is a hugely distinguishing item for our brand within the events industry; no other competitor reinvests so much in its musicians and local arts community.

45 Riots continues to invest in its personnel, offering competitive corporate salaries with full health and retirement benefits for our full-time administrative employees and highly competitive wages to our musicians, all of whom are W2 employees with employer protections per federal, state, and local employment laws. We have liability insurance per event as well as workers compensation, disability, and unemployment policies. Choosing 45 Riots means you are truly supporting music artists treated with respect by their employer, and a company that shows integrity with tax and labor law compliance and clear workplace policies. 

The execution of an amazing event performance starts with our small nucleus of admin staff at 45 Riots long before a note is ever played onstage. It begins with our prompt responsiveness to your inquiry, our friendly professionalism, and the decades of industry expertise we offer our clients. It continues with creative solutions. We can accommodate any client vision from our resources with 45 Riots - musically, logistically, or otherwise. Let us know your concept and budget and we will curate a perfect ensemble and experience. With the utmost attention to detail and thoroughness, we work together with our clients to prepare every detail of each event, assisting with the musical selections, timeline flow, logistics, and coordination with event planners, venue staff, and other vendor colleagues.