ITHACA, NY (CortacaToday) — If you have gone to concerts in Ithaca, you have most likely heard of Dan Smalls Presents. With their offices based in Ithaca, his company DSP Shows is a staple of the music scene here, as well as many other parts of the Northeast region of the U.S.

Dan Smalls is from the “Dirty Dancing” region of the Catskills in New York as he likes to call it, and originally came to Ithaca in 1988 to start his first year at Cornell University. He started out wanting to be an engineer, but during his first night at Cornell, he heard the sweet sounds of “Blues Traveler”, a band that was performing at a nearby frat party. It wasn’t long after this that he started to help the band book local gigs, and thus his career in concert promotion started.

Smalls got a job working at The Haunt, an iconic live music venue in Ithaca that is sorely missed by those with an appreciation for the music scene here, the name of which Dan Smalls now has ownership of. From Stevie Ray Vaughan to Pearl Jam, Smalls and John Peterson of Two Just Men Productions were able to bring an impressive repertoire of shows to the small venue.

DSP Shows was founded in 2008 after Smalls had gained valuable experience in the music industry and realized how he wanted to do business. His “claim to fame” so to speak is the fact that his company is based on a mutual respect between his team and the artists he promotes for. “I made the conscious decision to grow the company through treating acts better instead of trying to squeeze as much money out of them as possible. The affect that has had is that artists will come back and ask us for more shows,” says Smalls.

Dan Smalls of DSP Shows, photo courtesy of Dan Smalls

In total, DSP Shows does promotions for about thirty to forty different rooms, spanning from Central Western Massachusetts all the way to Buffalo, New York. The State Theatre of Ithaca, Hangar Theatre, Beak and Skiff Orchards, and the Center for the Arts of Homer are just a few of the local places that DSP Shows works with. John Sanders, Smalls’ business partner turned close friend, is who brought the Massachusetts side of business to the company.

With approximately $10 million of business done per year, Smalls says it is both exciting and humbling to have a company with this kind of traction. “We have to make a lot of difficult decisions, but our priority is always peoples’ safety and trying to get as good a show as possible from day one. Hosting shows in the Northeast region of the U.S. means there is always reasonable risk taken when scheduling because of how fast the weather can change. Sometimes people can get mean, that’s the only way to put it, but regardless of that we have to do what is best for everyone and make sure we eliminate as much risk as possible,” says Smalls of some of the more challenging aspects of concert promotion.

Now that they have seen serious expansion since their start, what is next for DSP Shows? Smalls says he is hopeful to turn the State Theatre in Ithaca into a more versatile venue. “Before the pandemic, we looked at a lot of different places, but spending that much money on a venue these days is a huge risk. We already have such a great relationship with the State Theatre and have bought a new sound system for it that it seems more logical to see what we can do with that. The goal is to make the first ten rows of seats removable, so we can offer larger shows as well as a larger variety of shows,” he says regarding future plans.

Being named in Pollster’s “Top 100 Promoters in the World”, Dan Smalls has made quite a name for himself not only locally, but worldwide. To learn more about the company as well as any upcoming shows, visit DSP Show’s website and take a look at their lineup.