Soho Sessions Cofounder Greg Williamson Ponders the Future of His Intimate Music-for-Good Event Series

Soho Sessions, meanwhile, has been a way for Williamson and Rechter to replicate the music-for-good model on a much smaller scale while still making an impact. Indeed, the exposure from the Simon gig offers them an exciting opportunity to expand that impact.

In a conversation with Elliman Insider about the future of Soho Sessions, Williamson reflected on the inspiration for the series and its real estate dimensions and also shared plans to add comedy to the mix and perhaps take the series on the road. While he allowed that Soho Sessions will certainly evolve, he made clear that its basic formula will remain unchanged: “great performances in intimate spaces, where you’re up close and personal with the artist, and supporting and amplifying great causes.”

Elliman Insider: When you think about the way Soho Sessions has grown over the past couple of years, was this the trajectory you imagined for it? And where does it go from here?

Greg Williamson: They started out more as jam sessions, but they were always about amplifying a cause. As we’ve had bigger artists participate and more people showing up, it’s grown organically into a brand, but we didn’t build it with the design for it to be a business. We built it with the goal of building community around music, and it’s become something even more substantial than we could have ever imagined. Now, we have a lot of big artists reaching out and sponsors wanting to get behind it.

Where does it go from here? We just want to keep putting on first-rate performances. Whether they happen in the Soho Sessions loft or somewhere else, the key for us is that they remain intimate, with a charitable cause. Also, while they’re certainly fundraising events, they’re really cultivation events where charities get access to people that they might not otherwise, and that can pay dividends for them over time in a big way.

We’ve supported everything from gun safety to mental health to music education to medical research to hunger and nutrition. They’re causes that we believe in and ones that we see a lot of artists and people want to get behind.

EI: Do the artists typically bring the cause with them?

That’s happening more and more, which I don’t think happens anywhere else. These artists are out there playing different benefit concerts, but they’re not often amplifying their own causes. We want to be a place where they can do that, and the Paul Simon event was a perfect example of that.

EI: What’s the story behind the Soho Sessions loft? How did you come to start hosting the events there?

GW: During the pandemic, because I’m in real estate, and because I was getting tired of working from home, I knew it was a great time to get space, since so many people had left the city and prices were down. I wanted a space that was suitable for both my music business and my real estate business, and that space just felt right—I could feel immediately when I walked in that it was a space with soulfulness. My partner, Nicole, said it would be great not only as a shared office for our company, but we could also host events, which is something we’ve wanted to do.

About two or three months later, my friend Cey Adams, who was the founding creative director of Def Jam Records, came over and told us that our space was the original home of Chung King Studios, which is where everybody from LL Cool J to Run DMC to the Beastie Boys got their start recording there. Artists like Lady Gaga and Amy Winehouse and Phish also recorded there. So, when I talk about how everything started organically, that’s a great example.

EI: Are you able to tell us when and what the next performance will be?

GW: Yeah, we’re actually getting into comedy. In December, we’re doing a Soho Session with [comic and podcast pioneer] Marc Maron. It’ll be comedy and music in support of mental health and addiction. Marc is sober, and I’ve been sober for over a decade, so it’s an issue that appeals to me personally.

We’re also doing something with Tracy Morgan in 2025, and we’re in discussions with Joss Stone right now.

EI: You mentioned hosting Soho Sessions in other venues besides the loft?

GW: 241 Centre is definitely home, but we’ve also done them at small, iconic venues like the Stephen Talkhouse in the Hamptons. We love partnering with those guys. We would potentially do it at places like the Troubadour in LA or the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville. So, it definitely has legs to go on the road.

EI: Any artists that you haven’t yet but would love to book for Soho Sessions?

A lot of my favorite artists have already done our shows, which is a weird and surreal thing—it’s like they’re stepping out of your record collection, and all of sudden, you’re working with them in person.

We would love for Lady Gaga or LL Cool J to do it because they’ve both recorded at the loft. It would be cool to have some of the artists who got their start there.

EI: This definitely seems like more than just a side hustle to your real estate career!

GW: It all comes from just being a fan of music. They’re very different businesses, and I do them both full-time. I’ve been in real estate for 17 years—I grew up in the real estate business. If there’s a common denominator for me, it’s that I like people and I like working with all different people. And I love having many balls in the air—it goes well with having ADHD.

I think Nicole and I would want to be doing this at any point in time, but particularly with all the despair in today’s world, we just want to put good into the universe. It makes us feel good, and it makes the people around us feel good.

Music, community and great causes. People ask us why we’re doing this, and those are the reasons. It’s that simple. And nothing, that we have experienced, feeds your soul more.

“We built it with the goal of building community around music, and it’s become something even more substantial than we could have ever imagined.”