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CTO World Entertainment

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CTO Worldwide Entertainment has created a total entertainment and production experience not just as a company, producer or agency, but also as its own full-fledged brand. This is in accordance with the dream and vision of its founder, Carmen Tomasetti. “Where we differ from a lot of people is in turning CTO itself into not just a business, but a brand. When I started we had only one band, but CTO now has branch bands all over the country, sixteen in total.” Carmen says a large part of this success is due to his intimate and hands-on approach with the CTO bands. “I am personally responsible for everything that every one of these bands do. Its not like I am an agent or a producer, simply booking the band from or for a third party. I don’t just represent these bands; they also represent me. In that regard, I actually do produce them.”

Carmen carefully oversees the CTO bands to ensure everything goes off without a hitch, from originally forming the bands to booking them and ensuring proper execution at an event. These events range from corporate and special events to weddings and receptions, CTO’s original specialty. “We do a significant amount of corporate dates, about thirty percent of the organization’s work all-told, but weddings are still our bread and butter.”

In fact, the CTO bands have gained so much experience with weddings that one of their groups, CTO SoHo, was even featured on a show for the Style Network at a wedding in Buenos Aires. “That was a really exciting event to be a part of. It was exotic, being located on the other side of the world and was held in The Four Seasons Hotel there, which is an absolutely beautiful establishment. This is but one of many exciting major events the CTO bands have been a part of. CTO Tribeca recently performed at Pennsylvania Governor Chuck Rendell’s Inaugural Ball. And CTO Park Avenue just performed for a major event at The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach in a partnership with Alan James of Powerhouse.

Like some of the best representatives of bands, Carmen started with his roots in music. “I play piano, guitar, write songs and sing. I always wanted to be a rock star and played all of the talent shows in school as a rock guitar player. Somewhere along the way, I had this vision that I would be 42 and singing at a Marriott behind a piano. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I felt that I wanted to make more income than that would provide. That’s when I fell in love with the sound of the cash register as opposed to the sound of the keyboard (laughs). All kidding aside, at that point I decided I really have to turn this into a business.”

Carmen had one band at the time that was doing well enough to support him and its other members, but he decided it was time to make a move. “I took someone out of the first band and formed the second because we were getting more phone calls for events than we could handle. It just built from there.”
Carmen originally started his ventures in Philadelphia, but as business got more and more intense, he realized the logical move would be a jump to New York. “I had a small office there starting out, but things kept snowballing.”

One of Carmen’s proudest achievements has been his ability to utilize technology to manage his business on a level many companies haven’t even thought about. “I created a database, which will be something I hope to market to the industry in the future. It is a program that runs an entire entertainment or booking based office from the ground up, almost automatically. It receives our payments, arranges and sends out schedules, sends out invoices, prints deposit tickets, I could go on, but suffice to say that if you do any sort of booking, scouting or organizing of entertainment related services, this program is for you.” Carmen says the real value of this system comes in with all of the labor charges he is able to save. He now runs his entire operation doing all the administrative work himself in just a short time per day while the rest of the staff can be devoted to hitting the phones.

Carmen majored in business with a minor in music and says music is still a large part of his life. He has even gotten airplay with some of his original material on his local stations. “I am just passionate about what I do. The booking and talent managing sides come naturally. The whole computer thing came about as a sort of obsession that is actually an asset and a liability of mine. I love efficiency so much, but I’m the kind of guy that would burn the house down just to get the mouse.”

In line with increasing his in-house efficiency, Carmen has tired of dancing the dance with photographers at various events. “We have been doing all of theses big inaugural events and it gets tiring asking photographer for pictures. In some of these political event arenas, we are there for the entertainment and the photographers have no connection to our company, so it can be difficult. I had to keep bugging these guys, so one of the last calls I made to a photographer was to ask him what kind of equipment he used (laughs).” Now Carmen can be seen snapping pictures around any one of the key events where CTO performs.

CTO has only been incorporated since 1997, but Carmen has been running the business for about twenty years altogether now. In that time, the company has obviously seen impressive growth. According to Carmen, this is due largely in part to a strict motto held around the CTO office and within the bands. “The planner is always right. You can never win an argument with a planner and if you did, it still wouldn’t be worth it. We feel if we do our best and do whatever the planner says, we will always get that glowing recommendation.”

While Carmen is a sort of do-it-yourself guy, he sees negative aspects of trying to bring too much under the roof of his single operation. “Over the past year I have been doing a lot of soul searching and taking a hard look at where the company is now and which direction it should head in the future. As of recently, I have come to a very satisfying realization in my career. Dance bands are what I doing well. I have a knack for creating them, managing them and making sure the bandleaders are content. I have a great team behind me.” Carmen explains that while he does book some national entertainment and steps into the role of producer when needed, he feels that CTO taking on too many auxiliary responsibilities could muddy the waters. “I do some production when someone needs me and I love doing it. We also book a lot of trios and string quartets etc, etc, but the real meat of what we do is still providing great dance bands. That is what we do the best.”
Because CTO Worldwide has so much experience with dance bands in just about any atmosphere, they are the go-to crew when it comes to providing a fully customizable music experience for nearly any event. “We can customize the band, the song selection, wardrobe, lighting, etc. and include special messages and product integrations at any show.”

CTO bands are always open to meet the crowds after a show and while none of the musicians audiences will meet are famous (with the exception of CTO SoHo band leader Patrice Hawthorne, one half of “Peaches & Herb” who made the song “Reunited” famous) they are exceptional in their own right. The musician’s in the CTO bands are without exception in the upper echelon of what they do, with many members of the bands having experience on stage with national acts. “Recently I overheard one of the guys talking about working with Ray Charles and I had no idea. One of my main vocalists was talking about singing with Stevie Wonder. I looked at him like he was crazy. Lo and behold a couple of days later a picture of him and Stevie Wonder shows up on my desk. I yelled at him ‘Why didn’t you tell me about this?! This is news! People need to know about this stuff!’”

One element that clearly comes through in every CTO event is the passion Carmen brings into the fray. “This is going to sound corny, but despite the major events we have done, I can’t pick a favorite or a crowning achievement. Every event I do is a shining moment and every single one is important to me. When we did the inaugural for the governor of Pennsylvania this past January, I couldn’t even make the event because of a conflict, but I was still obsessed with every detail of it from a remote location. The days when I could be at every event are gone, but that doesn’t lessen their importance to me in the least. When CTO works at an event, it is always the most important thing for everyone involved (especially us) and you can be rest assured we will do everything in our power to see it go off without a hitch.”

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CTO Worldwide Entertainment
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