I started as a musician.

My career began in music and live performance. Over time it grew into video, production, project leadership, and the systems that make live shows run. Along the way I've built new business, trained technical teams across several locations, and set up systems that help people and organizations run better.

Music is still the foundation.

I trained as a classical guitarist. I have a Bachelor of Music from The University of Toledo and a Master of Music in guitar performance from Carnegie Mellon, where I also studied composition.

Years of touring, recording, leading bands, and teaching taught me how performers, crews, and audiences think. I bring that to every project, whether there's a guitar involved or not.

I've played with artists including Jess Kellie Adams, Michael Christopher, Brianna Blankenship, and The Hillbilly Way.

On stage with Jess Kellie Adams, 2025.

What I bring

Creative and live production

Taking a project from idea to execution, live events, branded content, show development, and the audience experience.

Project leadership

Scoping, budgets, and schedules. Leading teams across departments. Vendors, logistics, clients, and the processes that keep it all running.

Video and audio

Directing and editing video, recording and mixing audio.

Technical systems

Lighting, audio, video, broadcast, and streaming. AV design and installs. Playback and in-ear monitor systems.

A big part of the job is matching equipment to the room, the budget, and the people running it, then explaining the tradeoffs so the client feels confident in what they're buying.

Tools

Creative & production: Adobe Creative Cloud, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Pro Tools, Logic Pro.

Project & marketing: Airtable, Asana, Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft Office, CRM tools, Meta advertising, and Squarespace.

Gear I reach for most: Midas, Allen & Heath, and Behringer consoles, Shure wireless, Dante audio networks, Ableton Live for playback, and Sony Alpha and FX cameras.

AI tools: I use AI every day to research, plan, build sales materials, and organize my work, mostly in Claude and ChatGPT, and I'm always testing new tools. I review and approve everything before it goes out. I also directed the builds of this website and jesskellieadams.com. I set the creative direction, brand, assets, and requirements, and Claude did the implementation.