Ross Eustis

Background

About Ross Eustis

I've been working 12+ years in the music industry – both for SFJAZZ and as a working musician (I play trumpet with Bay Area music collective Jazz Mafia). I graduated from Whitman College in 2011 with a BA in Chemistry. I took a hard left to pursue music, spring boarded by the T.J. Watson Fellowship, which funded a year long project where I studied and played jazz in Sweden, India, South Africa, Brazil, Japan and Cuba. I returned to the US in 2013, and moved to San Francisco, CA (I grew up in Seattle, WA). In 2013, I started at SFJAZZ in the Marketing Department and grew the social media channels and content marketing strategies. To this day, I have a soft spot for content and content creation (especially video!). In 2019, I accepted a position under SFJAZZ's former Executive Artistic Director and Founder Randall Kline, to research, develop and launch a member-supported digital platform for jazz streaming. The groundwork paid off when we launched a weekly livestream series (Fridays Live, formerly Fridays At Five), in March 2020 in response to the pandemic. Today, the streaming series is part of a much bigger streaming platform called SFJAZZ At Home. Over people have signed up for SFJAZZ At Home to date. The program has put over $1.1M in the pockets of musicians. It's been quite a ride, and I've been supported every step of the way by a talented and hardworking staff. We have big ambitions for SFJAZZ At Home, and also envisioning a greater Digital Transformation for SFJAZZ. Recent wins include getting a Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator Grant, for which I serve as a Bloomberg Tech Fellow. In the first year, we more than doubled SFJAZZ At Home's reach and video views. I also wrote my first 5-Year Business Plan (for SFJAZZ At Home) including Financials and a Pitch Deck for raising capital. I'm excited to continue developing as a leader and as a person. Music has been a trusted north star, and I'm fortunate to call it my career. PS - if you're curious about my trumpet playing, check out Jazz Mafia on any streaming platform (including Bandcamp). We've released a song a week for the past couple of years. I love working with such creative and ambitious and crazy people!