THE COMPANY

Encore Associates was established in 1983 by Tim Nass and Jeff Wright, the founder who remains the owner and operator today. Out of our offices at 27th and Broadway there were two companies that preceded Encore - The Shooting Star Managment, one of this area's largest international acts ever, and Elite, Ltd. which was a booking agency specializing in college and university entertainment throughout the Midwest. Seeing a need and opportunity in Kansas City's corporate community, we began Encore.

Our initial Mission Statement proclaimed that we would "be a full service entertainment agency for the corporate sector." With this idea, a new state-of-the-art dual floppy drive computer and a ton of desire, we joined the Chamber of Commerce and the Convention and Visitors Bureau and began to book pop bands, jazz bands and rock bands for private parties. We booked clowns, comedians, speakers, solo performers and even mimes. We provided bands for the Downtown Kansas City street lunch series presented by Downtown, Inc. and booked all the local music for the inaugural Kansas City Spirit Festival to expose ourselves to the corporate community.

By the late 1980s we decided to narrow the scope of the Company to better serve our clients and to pursue the niche of the entertainment business for which we were best suited. Tim went forward in the comedy side of the business providing comedians throughout the Midwest. Jeff took the music side and the Encore Associates name and began to focus exclusively on private party musical entertainment.

Our Mission today is "To provide top quality musical entertainment for the private event market." This includes corporate events, civic groups, weddings, country clubs, hotels, banquet facilities and conventions. We operate as consultants for our clients to make private event musical entertainment more accessible. We are buyer's representatives, not an agent for the band. We will help assess your entertainment needs and objectives, present informed alternatives, assist in securing the act for the event and see it through to a successful conclusion. We will balance the style, the quality and the price and will help assure that the end result is a perfect fit.

We only work on private and "by invitation" events. We do not book nightclubs or bars. So if you are ever in need of music for a private single engagement event, we can help. And our hope is that after you use us once, that you will want us back again and again..........That's ENCORE!

THE OWNER

Jeffrey R. Wright, the sole owner and operator of Encore Associates today, began his career in the music business by starting his own band at the age of 13 with four other classmates at Meadowbrook Junior High School. From very modest beginnings (the group's first paying job was a school dance bringing $40 for the entire band), he not only played the drums, but was the marketing and business manager of the group as well (although it wasn't a formal position back then). Through Shawnee Mission East High School, undergraduate and graduate school at the University of Kansas and with Encore and Kokomo since 1983, the music and the business has grown to what it is today - a wide, client-based consulting service creating, producing, marketing, performing and delivering quality musical entertainment to hundreds of clients throughout Kansas City and the Midwest.

Along the way, Jeff has had what can be called a "dual career" in the more traditional business sense. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration, a bachelor's degree in accounting and an MBA from the University of Kansas. He is also a Certified Public Accountant holding certificates in Kansas and Colorado. He has worked as a senior accountant at KPMG Peat Marwick, a cost engineer on the Trans Alaska Pipeline and was the first Corporate Controller for Beaver Creek Ski Area in Colorado. He has been an Associate Instructor of Accounting at the University of Kansas and is a full professor at Johnson County Community College. He is also a published author and has been a frequent private seminar speaker.

For many years, Jeff has been actively involved in the Kansas City civic scene working with numerous organizations on fundraising events and assuming leadership roles with The Whole Person, The Bacchus Foundation and most recently with Wayside Waifs Humane Society. He has been a Director of Indian Pointe Condo Association in Osage Beach, Missouri and has served as a Director and Board President at Wayside Waifs where he led the initiative as Building Chairperson being responsible for the construction of the new facility they enjoy today.

Now, at the beginning of the new millennium, the focus of his career with Encore Associates is helping professional individuals and organizations find professional musical entertainment that is right for them.