The Musical Connectors

“The beauty of Santa Barbara overtook me,” Jay Siegan likes to say about why he moved his family and his business to the area. 

The Bay Area native, who calls himself “very much a San Francisco person,” was tired of the roller-coaster grind associated with days ending at 3 a.m. and overlapping needs of constant talent bookings. He had owned the Red Devil Lounge in San Francisco, a venue that hosted a diverse roster of local and big-name artists, and lived and breathed the music scene in the area, but after a while, he says, he was ready to get off the ride. 

Santa Barbara was always familiar. Siegan had family and friends here; though he grew up in the Bay, his grandparents lived here and knew it well. So, he picked up and left. 

He also picked up something else along the way — a new director of strategy and brand for his company, Jay Siegan Presents. Angela Cosentino grew up in Santa Barbara and first began her career directing news at KEYT. Her story was very similar to Siegan’s: She had a desire for a change, only she had to come to that decision when the world shut down and big media productions were cut to Zoom interviews in 2020. 

The two had known each other since their early twenties, and they found a way to reconnect by way of their similar desires to slow down. Siegan was known for his work in music, comedy, and magic, while Cosentino had built a reputation for connecting with audiences and people through video as executive producer for corporate organizations.  

“I felt like I have such a passion for connecting with audiences and people, which is why I did media and video for so long,” said Cosentino. “Music is a parallel in the sense that it connects people to their emotions and each other, so it felt like a natural next step to go from video to music as content.”

Five years ago, Jay Siegan Presents still thought of themselves as a start-up, says Cosentino, though they had more than two decades of experience in the business. With Cosentino on board, growth started to feel inevitable. 

At its heart, Jay Siegan Presents is a matchmaker. They strive to connect the right artist with the right event — a symbiosis of brand, ideas, strategies, and judgement that goes much further than traditional booking or creative agencies. “We don’t think of ourselves as a booking agency; we think of ourselves as someone who makes sure the artist and vendor are the right fit,” Cosentino says.

The small but mighty team, which includes Siegan’s brother Scott Ehrnstein, likes to call themselves “roster agnostic,” says Cosentino. Their 10 team members from all across the country have been working with agencies all over the globe for 30 years and have developed a strong rapport for curating events that go beyond booking. “We’re part of the system providing the talent,” Siegan says. “We become the liaisons for people who dream of bringing a big artist to their event and bringing the artist to the event, which is a huge musical food chain.” 

Returning to Santa Barbara has also allowed them to reconnect with local artists such as Dishwalla and Toad the Wet Sprocket as well as local legends for nonprofit work such as Jeff Bridges and Kenny Loggins. Still, their Bay Area roots remain strong; as an organization, Jay Siegan Presents has helped to bring in more than $100 million for nonprofits, a large part due to their work with San Francisco’s Lyme disease nonprofit. And Cosentino does her part locally, sitting on the committee for the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation in hopes that big events are in their future, too. 

For more information, see jspevents.com.