History
Founded in 2004, Taylor Street Production has grown from its roots in rock concerts into an all-around event producer with years of experience creating athletic running events, corporate parties, sponsorship activations, music festivals, and far more. Our core team members have worked together for almost twenty years, and offer a tightly-knit team capable of developing events from first conception, through logistical and budgetary design, all the way through a flawless execution. Among countless other adventures, we've
closed Highway 101 in San Francisco to stage the SF Symphony's Black & White Ball;
developed operations for Nike running races in cities from coast to coast;
presented Sony Music's hot artists to digital music buyers at elite showcases across the country;
produced years of different music and partnership experiences at SxSW;
helped keep the Grateful Dead flame alive by designing and producing the Furthur Festival at Mountain Aire;
presented Barack Obama and Bill Clinton;
and created the production department for a brand-new 1,350-person concert venue in Berkeley.
We see every event as another chance to create something new, to use everything we've learned so far, and to learn as much as we can.
Owner
Matt Lawsky
Matt Lawsky offers a unique blend of the abstract and practical. After an undergraduate degree in analytic philosophy, he moved to the Bay Area, took various jobs, and soon ended up as a truck loader at the Warfield Theater. There, he learned every aspect of concert production hands-on as he progressed to stagehand, then crew chief, then stage manager, then production manager. Meanwhile, he mixed this and other local concert work for Bill Graham Presents with work on the road for touring bands, again serving at least a tour or two in every job onstage – from lighting designer to audio tech, to production manager - even, for a brief stint, long-haul truck driver.
At the end of the day, when you’re putting on a rock show by a touring band, regardless of what role you’re in, or what side you’re working for, the challenges all become variations on each other. By 2004, Matt was looking for ways to continue growing in the industry and to find new challenges. The way forward was starting Taylor Street Production LLC, together with his partner Luna, who had been serving her own hands-on apprenticeship in concert production. Through TSP, Matt and Luna have found no lack of challenges to discover and overcome. Since 2004, they’ve worked coast-to-coast to build their skills at producing every aspect of public assemblage - how to manage physical and human resources to keep tens of thousands of people safe and happy. Matt’s learned how to carve up a million-dollar budget a dozen different ways while always making it balance; he’s developed the best damn way to fit the most portopots in a tight space while keeping an open feel; he’s got an eye for just how many trucks you can squeeze next to each other; he’s learned how to defuse tense situations, whether they’re with clients in crisis or with confused patrons. He’s learned that every event takes place at the intersection of vision, budget, and what’s logistically possible.
Co-owner
Luna Oxenberg
Life is a funny thing and while sometimes the most carefully built plans come to nothing, a simple twist of fate can open up exciting new doors. After finishing school at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts where she studied chemistry, botany, environmental science, anthropology, and spent a semester studying medicinal plants in the Himalayas, Luna moved to Berkeley in 1997 with a desire to make the world a better place through graduate school or a job in the field of environmental science. Then one day a friend got sick and offered her the opportunity to usher at the Warfield Theater. It was just a one time volunteer opportunity, work a bit, see a show, have a beer. However, this twist of fate changed everything. Luna fell in love with working at the theater and over the next few years worked her way up through almost all the jobs the venue had to offer and then into roles with other event companies. Since then, Luna has worked worked on almost every aspect of live events. She has sold tickets, illustrated flyers, created beautiful dressing rooms, cleaned toilets, been security, drawn maps, built crews, run crews, applied for permits, planned, planned and planned - and stayed up way too late. In 2004, Luna and Matt started Taylor Street Production, so that they could fully realize their passion for live events.
Today, Luna lives in Berkeley, Ca with her four cats, three dogs, two kids, and her kind and patient husband. She likes to listen to Science Friday while cleaning the house, walk her dogs, plan events, and cook.
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Education
Hampshire College
B.S. Natural Science, 1997
Activities & Affiliations
Old Oak Tree Co-op
Sierra Club