A legend on the local entertainment scene is calling it a
career. Sheldon Kagan told me today that
after an extraordinary 50 years of working
on every angle related to entertainment, concert production, trade shows, party
planning and special events that the time has come to step back.
“I am retiring,” Kagan said. “It is official. Today is my actual
50th anniversary in the business
I felt that this was the right time to do it.”
The head of Sheldon Kagan International has been the driving force
behind a broad spectrum of successful projects - from concerts, singles parties
and weddings, to exhibitions for the bridal, family, boomer and
business-to-business markets. He actually got into the business when he was
just 14 years old as a deejay, calling himself Shelly the K and his Mobile
Discotheque. His first gig was at a high school dance and he was paid $25 for
his services.
Kagan produced his first major concert in 1969. Only 19 at the
time, he booked jazz greats Dizzy Gillespie and Gene Krupa to play at the Place des Arts. Tickets were $3.50 and $6.50 and the show sold out. Fast forward to December 2, 2011 when he brought
recording superstar Dionne Warwick to the same venue, where seats ranged from
$80 to $130 each.
As an impresario, Kagan has produced some 65 shows at the Place des Arts and brought in such
artists as Kenny Loggins, Ravi Shankar, Duke Ellington, Artie Shaw, the Glenn
Miller Orchestra, Bill Withers, and Billy Preston. In recent months he has
presented The Beatles Experience, Abba Memories, LOL Montreal Comedy Night, the
International Tenors and celebrity impersonators the Edwards Twins. He also ran
numerous shows a year without charge
for charitable organizations.
One of Kagan’s most branded events is
the Salon de la Mariée, an annual exhibition that now
attracts over 5,000 brides, grooms and family members to the Palais des
Congrès. There will soon be a “for sale”
sign for this event. “It should continue,” he said, “but I will be very careful
whom I entrust this with. It is my baby!”
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| A typical Kagan trade show. |
Other trade shows he has produced included the Salons des Boomers
Plus, Salon Affaires de Montréal and Le Salon de la Famille.
Kagan actually met his wife Linda while hosting the Royal Bank
Christmas party at the Windsor Hotel.
Kagan boasts a personal
collection of 20,000 albums and 45 rpm's. In addition, his Dorval-based company
owns a library of 22,000 songs on CDs feeding himself, three mobile deejays, as
well as his seven top 40 bands and strolling, classical and jazz musicians.
Sheldon Kagan International has been organizing in excess of 1,100
parties a year. About 55 percent were corporate functions. The rest consisted
of weddings, private functions, and bar/bat mitzvahs. Upon request, he could often be found at the
deejay table himself. “That’s my first love,” he says. “Sometimes I just want
to go back to my roots.”
Good
luck Sheldon. Something tells you will have a lot of offers from people to
become a special advisor. He was a guest on Global TV's Focus Montreal with Jamie Orchard.
