The Torpey Family

My name is Michael Torpey and I live in Kent with my lovely wife and our two amazing daughters. Our older daughter is currently in elementary school and our younger daughter will head to universal Pre-K next year.

We’re a big Disney family. We love vacations and dogs. Most of all, we love each other.

We bought our home in 2016 after an extensive search and about two weeks before we had our first daughter. Kent seemed like a nice place to raise a family with a good school district and lower taxes and real estate prices than our home county of Westchester. Our house was a bit of a fixer-upper, but with “good bones,” as they say. I was happy and excited to do the work.

My wife and I grew up in Mount Pleasant and we’re both graduates of Westlake High School where I excelled in music and the arts as a singer, actor, and instrumentalist. From the time that my mother began teaching me how to read music while singing in church at around 6 years old, I knew that I had a love and talent for music. I began playing trumpet in the 4th grade and quickly excelled to first chair in the concert band, where I remained until I graduated. I also performed in the jazz band, pep band, pit orchestra, chorus, “Blendors” (a small group of the best singers), all-county chorus, and a soloist at all-state chorus. I also founded and played in the high school rock band as well as performed leading roles in every drama and musical from 6th grade through 12th. When I was in 8th grade, my band teacher invited me to play 1st chair in the high school jazz band and 1st chair in the high school pit orchestra. That year, I was also accepted into the Westchester Youth Symphony. My chorus teacher nicknamed me “The Music King of Westlake.” A title that I proudly embraced and one which earned me a few performing arts scholarships. 

I attended undergraduate school at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music and graduate school at Hofstra University. I performed many leading tenor roles with the Purchase Symphony Orchestra and worked as a professional singer for a number of years. That work included regional opera, concerts, soloist positions, religious services, and private teaching. I was also the permanent soloist and children’s choir director at the Mount Kisco Presbyterian Church for several years. Some interesting tidbits, I once sang the National Anthem at Madison Square Garden in front of 20,000 people and I can sing fluently in five different languages.  

Ultimately, and for a number of reasons, I decided that that career path was not right for me. I was not willing to sacrifice my other life goals in pursuit of greatness on the stage. I wanted a family, a house, a yard, dogs, kids. From my experience and observations, those things are very difficult to achieve and balance in the life of an entertainer. 

I was offered a position working at Lincoln Center as an audio technician and earned a membership in Local One IATSE, one of the first labor unions in the country. I had picked up a lot of knowledge from other students in the music production program while I was in college. I also sang in a band. We played at just about every music venue in the West Village. In addition, I had worked backstage on a number of different productions throughout the years, and I had worked in event production to supplement my income as a professional singer. When I stepped into my role in the big leagues at the mecca of performing arts, I felt right at home, despite it being a very high stakes, high pressure, fast-paced environment. 

During most of my time at Lincoln Center, I worked under the direction of Abe Jacob, who is widely considered to be Broadway’s “godfather of sound design.” Working with Abe was a daily master class in stage production, and while in that position I had the opportunity to work with some of the world’s most notable figures and talents. One week, I shared breaks with Patti LaPone. We sat together on the stone blocks outside the stage door on 62nd St. Our conversations varied from what was happening in rehearsal to creating ridiculous backstories for people passing by. Kristin Chenoweth and I shared a bunch of laughs while working on a gala concert. One day, I walked into the production booth and found myself face to face with Paul McCartney. He reached out his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Paul.” Surreal is not an adequate word to describe the experience. I spent the next four days working with him while preparing to record a live performance of a ballet he had written for the New York City Ballet called “Ocean’s Kingdom.” It was around then, several years into time my at Lincoln Center, when I felt like I had peaked. It's hard to top working with a Beatle. So, I decided to start my own video production business. 

I had always been very interested in technology, including video cameras and witnessed the first consumer video camera and the evolution that followed. From film, to video tape, to digital. My experience in theatrical and event production often crossed paths with the TV and film production world, and I had worked regularly with a small video production company after college as a grip, gaffer, fist AC, basically anything they needed. So, when the video production industry went digital, not only was I was intrigued and inspired, but I was also prepared.

I began my business from the ground up and did everything myself. From branding, marketing and advertising, to sales, compliance, and operation. I started in the wedding market providing a low cost option for wedding videography. My business quickly grew along with the quality of the product. I was no longer offering wedding videography, I was offering wedding cinematography. Pieces of high art for discerning clients. It was not long before I became one of the most highly sought after wedding cinematographers in the area, and I was regularly booked up to two years in advance. I even had the opportunity to film some celebrity weddings.

 Along the way, I worked on some other projects here and there for clients in other fields and I began to grow new partnerships within higher education, private education, and non-profit organizations. I had a reliable flow of clients for many years. Then, COVID. All weddings canceled. 

 Despite the initial loss in revenue from canceled weddings during COVID, I'm proud to say that neither myself nor myself company took a single penny from COVID relief funding. I could have easily stayed home and received a large Paycheck Protection Loan along with unemployment payments. Rather, I quickly pivoted and focused my energy to serve my clients in other markets. Luckily, some of those clients needed expert consultation and execution more than ever in the wake of COVID. During that time, I helped my clients navigate through unprecedented circumstances and successfully produced countless live streams, virtual events, hybrid events, and virtual commencements.   My company just celebrated its 14th year in business.  We currently offer video and event production and consultation, including turnkey fundraising solutions to help our clients achieve results and bring their visions to life. I am proud to say that we have helped our partners raise tens of millions of dollars through our passionate storytelling and seamless event production.