Today we’d like to introduce you to Becky and Don Cagen.
Becky and Don, please share your story with us.
Making music and needing to help people has always been at the cornerstones of my life. I started singing and playing the piano at three years old. A few years later, I began playing guitar and several other instruments as well as writing songs. I sang on commercial jingles as a child, went to theater camp for 7 summers, starred in shows in high school and loved performing.
However, when it came time to choose a career, my need for helping people won out and I decided to become a psychiatrist. While I was a pre-med student at Tulane University, it became clear that continuing on the psychiatrist path meant I would not have any time for music, which for me, was unacceptable. I transferred to Chicago Musical College at Roosevelt University and changed my major to Music in Special Education. I had found a career that incorporated both my passions.
A year later, I met Don on a blind date. Don was a music student at Northwestern University majoring in trumpet performance and composition. While his classmates were taking a junior year “abroad”, Don took a junior year “a-band” and started a new version of the dance band he had in high school. Don has been a bandleader since he was 13 years old and loved performing at private parties. When Don decided to add a female singer to his band, (only 3 bands in our industry had female singers then) I auditioned and got the gig!
The Don Cagen Orchestra was instantly successful. We were playing over 150 parties a year. We both loved the performing aspect of our work, but the “hook” was that we were helping people celebrate the most important days of their lives through our music. This was the perfect career for me as it allowed me to fulfill both my passions. We chose to continue on this career path and formed our company.
Ten years later, as our business continued to grow exponentially, we could not service all our clients personally. We designed additional bands to be identical to The Don Cagen Orchestra. Our model was a Broadway Show. For example, Hamilton is playing on Broadway, in London, here in Chicago, and touring companies around the world. It is the same show regardless of where it is playing and each has its own cohesive cast. We felt the only way we could put our name on these new bands (and be able to sleep at night), was to maintain control and provide the same quality of music to our clients. This concept model was and is unique in the Chicago entertainment scene and has been extremely successful for us.
Today, our company is internationally renowned. We have provided music for over 7000 events. We have four dance bands; The Don Cagen Orchestra, “Big Beat”, “iNCOGNiTO” and “Orchestra Chicago”, plus two ethnic music dance bands: “Ashira” and “Greek Beat”. We have several dozen unique soloists, DJs, and ensembles for wedding ceremonies and cocktail hours and corporate receptions.
We also have created fantastic corporate shows (with and without dancers) with themes ranging from a show featuring Broadway star Gregg Edelman, a Frankie Valli Review, a “Mad Men 60’s Music Show”, French and Latin Music Shows, our “Chicago Show” based on the musical “Chicago”, A “Motown Review” a Rock Violin Show and countless others.
In addition, this year, we launched a new division of Cagen Music: ABCAV, which provides audio, video and lighting production services for Weddings, Corporate Events, Galas, and Concerts.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a smooth road regarding our success. On a personal level, it has been a challenge to find that illusive “life-work balance”. We are always working and performing so keeping our work and marriage relationship separate is a constant challenge. However, we must be doing something right as we just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary! How many couples could work together and perform together while staying married for that long?
Cagen Music – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Cagen Music is a special event music production company. We provide innovative and exciting customized music for weddings, corporate parties, and charity galas. We are the most experienced and trusted go-to-source in Chicago for all music needs.
What sets us apart is that we approach our music not as a business, but rather as a vehicle for making our client’s dreams come true. Our mission statement has been “It is NOT ABOUT US, it is ABOUT YOU! We are totally authentic and clients appreciate that.
We are a husband-wife team who have chosen not to hire a staff to handle our clients and business affairs but prefer to work with our clients directly. Our clients know that they will not be handed off to a sales manager or other staff person, but will only be working with either Don or I. In order to maintain this personalized service, we set a cap of around 250 events a year. Our favorite part of the business is personally helping our clients and if that means we might perform a little less, that is fine.
The most gratifying part of our business without question is the relationships we have formed with our clients. Every year over 70% of our bookings is “repeat clients”, meaning people who have hired us before. We feel so honored to be chosen to share in the happiest days of our clients’ lives and take that responsibility seriously. Our goal is to exceed our clients’ expectations and given we have been in this industry for over three decades, obviously, we have succeeded.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
A game changer in our career came in 2009 when we were chosen to perform at President Obama’s Inaugural Ball in Washington DC. Performing at this historic event and sharing the marquee with so many music superstars was beyond any dream we could have imagined and changed the trajectory of our career path.
Contact Info:
- Address: 915 Shermer Road
Northbrook, IL 60062 - Website: cagenmusic.com
- Phone: 847 559-0900
- Email: info@cagenmusic.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/cagenmusic
- Facebook: facebook.com/cagenmusic
Image Credit:
Andre Lacour, Phil Farber, Jennifer Mordini, Pierre’s Portrait Art, Kevin Weinstein, Kingensmith
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