Danny Rocks, the Founder of The Company Rocks, built his career in the music products industry. He started as a professional musician at age 12 in his native Philadelphia; played piano for and conducted major productions on Broadway; and served in executive positions in the printed music industry for 29 years.
Danny majored in Music Education at Temple University in Philadelphia where he accompanied many of the choral groups at school. Robert Page was the head of the choral department at that time and he was one of Danny’s first mentors – pointing him to many opportunities in musical theatre.
Another mentor, John Lesko, hired him as his assistant conductor without ever seeing Danny conduct. This experience helped to shape Danny’s long-held belief in the importance of mentoring. “A mentor sees something in the mentee that he or she could never see on their own; and moves them in a direction to discover opportunities to grow.” Lesko was the first person to call Danny a “catalyst” for his ability to produce positive results during rehearsals and performances.
After serving as the Assistant Conductor in a major production of Fiddler on the Roof with Zero Mostel in 1976, Danny started his career in Music Publishing with G. Schirmer, Inc. in New York. He moved to California later that year and joined Alfred Publishing as a sales representative in 1983. Ambitious and hard working, Danny quickly advanced to become Vice President of Sales in 1989.
During the mid-80’s Danny became involved with the coalition to support music and arts education. Karl Bruhn led many of these early efforts and he serves as a role model for Danny’s career. Under Karl’s leadership, Danny gained the benefit of working with others in pursuit of a common goal. “If you are serious about having a career, you must become active in your profession’s professional associations.”
Danny became a leader in the Retail Print Music Dealers Association – www.printmusic.org, The Music Teachers National Association – www.mtna.org and the American Music Conference – www.amc-music.org where he is the immediate Past-President.
Danny is a natural leader and an inspirational speaker. His presentations at music industry and educational gatherings have drawn standing-room-only crowds and rave reviews. He has included the handouts for several of his talks on this website.
In July, 2006 Danny retired from Alfred to form The Company Rocks. He works as a catalyst to help individuals, corporations and educational associations to understand the need for change and to seize opportunities that arise with change.
Now, Danny has added the title Author to his muti-faceted career. In 2009, Danny created “The 50 Best Tips for …” series of instructional DVDs for SkillPath Seminars Publications in Mission, KS. “The 50 Best Tips for Excel 2007,” “The 50 Best Tips for PowerPoint 2007,” “The 50 Best Tips for Outlook 2007,” “The 50 Best Tips for Access 2007,” and “The 50 Best Tips for Word 2007” are now in release.
