Black Voltron, the local hip hop, jazz and neo soul collective formed by Cleveland Arts Prize winner Hyperius Blake, will headline the fifth annual Rock Solid gala on Nov. 7 at The Treelawn in Cleveland's Waterloo District. The nonprofit behind the show, Cleveland Rocks: Past, Present and Future, says the fundraiser has pulled in more than $146,000 for Northeast Ohio's music community since it began.
That figure comes straight from the organization's own accounting, posted on its Rock Solid event page, which says the gala has raised more than $146,000 for Northeast Ohio's music community during its first four years. A separate account from Cleveland.com, published ahead of last year's event, put the three-year total before the 2025 gala at more than $150,000. Either way, the money flows into an incubator program that Cindy Barber, co-owner of the Beachland Ballroom and founder of Cleveland Rocks, says is one of only a handful like it in the country.
Leonard DiCosimo will emcee Black Voltron's set, and the bill also includes Wave Magnetik, a past incubator artist known for jazz-infused EDM; Moon Echo Garden, a psychedelic art-rock band featuring Meganne Stepka and Kate Hart; Fox Ears, an indie rock soul band with Curtis Johnson; and Americana rock outfit Maura Rogers & The Bellows, fronted by Maura Rogers. Hyperius Blake, who leads Black Voltron, went through the Cleveland Rocks incubator program last year and has since become known as a connector who helps other emerging musicians find their footing.
How the Incubator Money Actually Moves
The incubator program works by inviting artists to pitch projects alongside other musicians and volunteers who help develop the concept, according to the organization. Selected artists can receive loans of up to $2,000, per reporting from Signal Cleveland, which musicians have used for touring, recording, merchandise or other investments tied to their careers. Barber said the program hands out those $2,000 loans every year to a small cohort, alongside workshops, mentoring and performance opportunities.
That mentoring has stretched into logistics as basic as booking a tour. Cleveland Rocks has provided tour support for area musicians including Jenna Fournier, known as Kid Tigrr, and the lead singer of Niights, while Corey Grinder and the Playboy Scouts are set to embark on a two-week tour of the South next month. Barber said artists today need strong live video to get booked on the road, and the organization is working to get musicians low-cost or grant-supported production help to build social media and touring content.
Why Barber Says the Industry Needs the Help
Barber, who started Cleveland Rocks in 2012, has said the music industry has changed dramatically and that continued support is needed to preserve both the industry and the musicians working in it. That urgency lines up with broader numbers on the region's independent venues: according to Cleveland.com, only 20% of independent music venues in Ohio were profitable in 2024, versus 36% nationally, with rising artist fees, insurance costs, ticket scalping and inflation in staffing, rent and mortgage costs all weighing on operators.
Building NOMAD, a Campus for the Next Generation
Cleveland Rocks is also developing the Northeast Ohio Music Arts Development campus, known as NOMAD, with the State of Ohio backing the project with $200,000. Signal Cleveland reports the campus is expected to open in Collinwood's Waterloo Arts District in 2027 and will bring music, audio and film creatives together under one roof, with training in audio engineering and video production through partnerships with Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland State University and other institutions. The project is intended to help creatives capture and promote their work through recordings and videos.
The monthly Waterloo Makes Music showcase is free and takes place at venues in the arts district.
What's on the Auction Block
This year's gala features table seating with food and drink tickets alongside a silent auction that's open online through Saturday. Among the items up for bid is a pair of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony tickets. Gala tickets themselves are available at clevelandrocksppf.org.
Also expected at the gala is Kent Smith, whom the article describes as “our rock n' roll senator” for his support of arts-based economic development in Ohio. For an organization built on the idea that Cleveland's music scene needs more than applause to survive, that kind of attendance is its own small vote of confidence.
