Bio
Lawrence R. (Larry) Koval brings a broad array of knowledge and experience with him by virtue of his lifelong involvement with music and the music business.
Larry started out playing drums at the age of 5 with his father’s wedding band. He then studied piano, accordion, and music theory for 9 years with private lessons from Don Picozzi and Frank Cardone, playing in various bands through high school and college. While at John Carroll University, where he received a B.A. in Political Science, Larry decided to minor in music, and took courses at Ursuline College, which had a reciprocal arrangement with JCU, and developed skills in arranging and orchestration.
After college, Larry decided to play professionally and was in one of the top local Cleveland bands during that time (1974- 1979) called “COCO”, playing the Agora chain, outdoor festivals, parties-in-the park, and all of the top local clubs. He then arranged the vocals on a song that hit # 1 on the Billboard Dance Charts (1981) – a remake of “Standing in the Shadows of Love” by the group, Fever.
Around that time, he decided to leave the music business and started a career with The Wall Street Journal, where he became Regional Circulation Market Manager, managing distribution, sales, and marketing for the Midwest Region, working out of the Cleveland office. He had responsibility for 70 full-time employees and over 1000 part-time employees, while managing a budget of around 12 million dollars. He won awards for providing the best service in the country to subscribers in his area, and set industry-wide standards for service excellence. He also began working with college professors to find creative ways to use the Wall Street Journal in the classroom, along with the internet version of the paper.
While he was still at The Journal, the love of music kept pulling him like a magnet. He decided to record some songs that he had written previously, and went out to San Francisco to work with former band member, Dennis Wadlington, and studio producer Joel Jaffe (Huey Lewis, Boz Scaggs) at Studio D in Sausalito. It was on the way back from that trip in 1992, that he decided to form Cross Track Music, Inc. as a music publishing company to help songwriters market their material to the industry. The company eventually expanded to include Artist Management, with Larry managing the career of Carlos Jones (www.carlosjones.com), one of the pioneers of American Reggae. The company also added a record label subsidiary – Little Fish Records (www.littlefishrecords.com) in 1994. During the pandemic, he launched another subsidiary – Music America – focusing on live streaming and video production, and produced the “Out of the Box” concert series in conjunction with the Music Box Supper Club in Cleveland, Ohio as well as a weekly Facebook series called “The Cleveland Beat” (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057305895662).
Larry left the Wall Street Journal in 1999 after 21 years to pursue other entrepreneurial ventures and eventually became a Series 7 licensed Financial Advisor, and currently runs his own practice – Strategic Financial Solutions. He specializes in working with people in the Arts & Entertainment industry, including members of Local 4 Musicians Union and the Cleveland Orchestra. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Noteworthy Federal Credit Union which serves the Arts & Entertainment Industry, is a member of the Wickliffe Italian-American Club, where he was Secretary for many years as well as on the Bocce Tournament Committee, and was a past member of the Cleveland Music Group, a non-profit organization formed to support the local industry.
Larry is considered to be one of the few people in Cleveland who truly understand the music publishing business, and has helped many songwriters and musicians protect their copyrights, claim their royalties, and set up their publishing companies. His knowledge of both the music industry and his general business knowledge and acumen, makes him a valuable resource for those pursuing a music career.
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