Historical Note
Michael Schreibman (b. 1944 in Washington, DC) is a concert promoter in the Washington, DC area and co-founder of the Washington Area Musicians Association (WAMA) who was active from the 1960s into the 2010s. Described by DC area music historian Mark Opsasnick as “one of the most influential figures on the local popular music scene,” Schreibman began working as a lighting and sound engineer at local clubs in 1965. After managing several nightclubs around the Georgetown and Adams Morgan neighborhoods -- including the Ambassador Theatre, which hosted Jimi Hendrix, The Hollies, Canned Heat and many others -- Schreibman began promoting larger concerts in the late 1960s, including a notable one co-promoted with Lester Grossman at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Maryland, featuring both The Who and Led Zeppelin on May 25, 1969. Schreibman brought The Who back to DC later that year on November 2 for a concert at Georgetown University's McDonough Gymnasium, an event later described by a Washington Post critic as “the most electrifying rock performance I have ever seen.”
From 1969 to 1971, Schreibman managed and promoted concerts at Emergency, "an important part of DC music history," according to filmmaker and historian Jeff Krulik. Founded as a teenage nightclub in Georgetown, Emergency saw a number of notable rock and blues artists – The Kinks, Grin (featuring Nils Lofgren), Rory Gallagher, Fairport Convention, Buddy Guy, The Amboy Dukes – take its stage. Schreibman also worked with DC music journalist Richard Harrington on an alternative arts newspaper called Woodwind that published from 1970 through 1973, although he continued promoting concerts for years with his company New Era Concerts (also known as New Era Follies).
Schreibman and DC area booking agent Michael Jaworek, formed the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) in 1984. WAMA described itself as an organization dedicated to “raising the profile of the region’s diverse music community,” which it did, in part, through an annual awards show (nicknamed “The Wammies”) that honored musicians from various genres like go-go, punk, bluegrass, hip-hop, rock, folk, jazz and more. Schreibman, described by longtime DC music journalist Steve Kiviat as "a frank, low-key fellow," retired from concert promotion in 2004 but continued to lead WAMA into the 2010s.
Sources:
Gay, Tim. n.d. "The night the Who rocked Georgetown", Georgetown Magazine.
Harrington, Richard. 2020. Email to John Davis. February 6.
Kiviat, Steve. 1998. "What's WAMA worth?", Washington City Paper. October 2.
Krulik, Jeff. 2019. email to John Davis. August 6.
Opsasnick, Mark. 2019. Rock the Potomac : Popular Music and Early-Era Rock and Roll in the Washington, D.C. Area First ed. St. Petersburg, Florida: BookLocker.
