A few years ago while watching a PBS special that featured trumpeter Chris Botti, I caught a glimpse of his super-talented violinist Lucia Micarelli and contacted Bobby Colomby (her manager and one of the nicest guys) to see if we could feature her for our music issue. A few weeks later and Lucia was in front of photographer Marc Baptiste's lens for our six-page feature on her. Fast forward a few years later and another of the artists who appeared on that same Chris Botti special was on the cover of GENLUX—the talented Katherine McPhee. We were lucky enough to have Katharine McPhee perform at two of our Genlux events. Once where she sang, 'Over the Rainbow' (the song that catapulted her to fame during American Idol) on the rooftop of the Luxe Hotel on Rodeo Drive for our issue release party.

Lucia Micarelli photographed by Marc Baptiste

Bobby and I always talked about featuring Chris but since we really don't cover a lot of men's stuff, it wasn't a fit. Over this past month or two, that story has changed.

Last week, one of my favorite photographers, Erik Almas (erikalmas.com), flew down from San Francisco to shoot Chris for our first male cover. In usual Erik Almas-style, it was a super-production. Erik decided to shoot a "music" video at the same time and things exploded into a mega production, but more on that later.

In what started off as a series of "WHAT IF" talks over 'Taco Tuesday' with Craig Donahue of The Donahue Group; and "WOULDN'T IT BE COOL" talks with super-producer Bobby Colomby, have turned into this little miracle: Chris Botti will be performing a full concert for GENLUX Magazine on Rodeo Drive next month! Thanks to Craig, we've teamed up with the Rodeo Drive Committee and the City of Beverly Hills to block off the street (Do you know how hard it is to block off the most famous street in the world?) We are erecting a stage and a thousand seats and it's going to be the event of the year in Beverly Hills. More on all of this later!