The T.J. Martell Foundation raised more than $3.2 million for cancer research at its 51st annual New York Honors Gala, turning an industry tribute to Red Light Management founder Coran Capshaw into the event’s biggest fundraising night in more than two decades.
Held September 15th at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York, the sold-out gala honored Capshaw with the Lifetime Music Industry Award. Dave Matthews presented the award to his longtime manager before Matthews, Trey Anastasio and Chris Stapleton each performed intimate solo acoustic sets.
MusicRow confirms that the night brought in more than $3.2 million, the strongest result for the New York Honors Gala in over 20 years.
The music made the benefit unusually personal. All three performers have ties to Capshaw and Red Light, and their six-song acoustic stretch turned decades of artist-management relationships into the musical center of a night built around cancer research.
Three Artists Turned the Gala Acoustic
Matthews, Anastasio and Stapleton can each command enormous live audiences. At Cipriani, each appeared alone with an acoustic guitar.
Matthews opened the musical tribute with “Save Me” and “Don’t Drink the Water,” two songs he said he believed were among Capshaw’s favorites. Rather than reaching automatically for Dave Matthews Band’s most obvious crowd pleasers, the choices came from different parts of his catalog.
“Don’t Drink the Water” appeared on Dave Matthews Band’s 1998 album Before These Crowded Streets, while “Save Me” comes from Matthews’ 2003 solo album Some Devil. Without a full band, both songs put the writing, guitar and Matthews’ voice ahead of the expansive arrangements associated with much of his live career.
Trey Anastasio followed with “Waste” and “More.” Variety details the six-song sequence and the personal stories the musicians shared between performances.
“Waste,” first released by Phish on 1996’s Billy Breathes, carries an additional connection to Matthews. The two musicians have performed the song together over the years, making its appearance at a tribute to the manager connecting their touring worlds particularly fitting.
Anastasio closed with “More,” leaving the song’s direct, uplifting refrain to do the work without the extended improvisation that might surround a Phish performance.
Stapleton finished the musical portion with “Where Rainbows Never Die,” reaching back to his years with the SteelDrivers, followed by “Tennessee Whiskey.” One of the defining recordings of his solo career was reduced from its familiar country-soul arrangement to a single voice and guitar.
The rarity was not a sprawling benefit set. It was the opposite: three performers associated with major touring productions stripping six songs down to songwriter scale in the same room.
Capshaw Built Red Light From Dave Matthews Outward
Every performance led back to the night’s honoree.
Capshaw founded Red Light Management in 1991 while working with Dave Matthews Band in Charlottesville, Virginia. He helped guide the group from a regional live act into one of the most durable touring businesses in American music, then expanded the management company far beyond its original client.
Red Light’s roster now reaches across rock, country, jam music, alternative and pop, with artists including Phish, Stapleton, The Strokes, Primus, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie. Music Business Worldwide identifies Red Light as what the company describes as the world’s largest independent artist management firm.
That history gave Matthews presenting the Lifetime Music Industry Award considerably more weight than a standard celebrity introduction. Their professional relationship reaches back to the beginning of both Dave Matthews Band’s rise and Red Light itself.
Anastasio and Stapleton show how much wider Capshaw’s business became. Phish represents another touring ecosystem built around decades of audience loyalty, while Stapleton’s career moved from Nashville songwriting and bluegrass into one of country’s largest live draws.
Different sounds connect the three artists, but so does an unusually strong dependence on live music. Long-term touring has been central to the careers of Matthews, Phish and Stapleton, making their presence a useful snapshot of the kind of artist development Red Light built its reputation around.
Capshaw used his acceptance remarks to redirect attention toward the industry’s willingness to organize around causes outside commercial music. He spoke about musicians and executives responding to cancer, natural disasters and community needs, Town & Country notes.
The Gala Raised More Than $3.2 Million
The performances supplied the night’s musical draw, but the fundraising result made the 2026 gala exceptional.
More than $3.2 million was raised for the T.J. Martell Foundation’s cancer-research mission. Board chair Steve Gawley said the total made this year’s gathering the organization’s most successful New York Honors Gala in more than two decades.
“Tonight isn’t just about the total,” Gawley said in remarks documented by MusicRow, pointing instead to what the funding allows researchers to pursue.
The foundation has been connecting the music business with cancer research since 1975. Its origins trace to record executive Tony Martell and his son T.J., who was diagnosed with leukemia and asked his father to raise money toward finding a cure. T.J. died at 21.
Over the five decades since, the organization says it has raised nearly $300 million for medical research. The foundation’s gala announcement places the annual New York event at the center of that fundraising history.
The Honors Gala remains its flagship event, but the foundation also raises money through cancer summits, wine events, Nashville programs and other campaigns throughout the year.
That broader operation gives the $3.2 million result some scale. It is not the organization’s lifetime total compressed into one unusually successful dinner, but it does establish a new modern benchmark for its largest annual New York fundraiser.
Trey Anastasio Made the Night Personal
Anastasio connected the foundation’s mission to losses in his own life before he played.
The Phish guitarist spoke about losing both his sister and his best friend to cancer, giving the benefit’s purpose a personal dimension that went beyond his professional relationship with Capshaw.
Capshaw also figures into another part of Anastasio’s life away from the stage. Anastasio credited a conversation with his manager with helping inspire him to open a sober retreat in Vermont.
He described Capshaw as someone deeply invested in music, giving back and fundraising for causes he cares about, Variety notes.
The two had been part of a similar benefit nearly nine years earlier. In 2017, Anastasio and Matthews both performed solo acoustic sets when Capshaw received City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award in California.
Anastasio played “More” that night too.
Its return at the T.J. Martell gala gave one song a quiet history of its own: the same musician performing the same piece at two different charitable tributes to the same manager, separated by nearly a decade.
Music Industry Relationships Power the Foundation
The room at Cipriani reflected a much wider music-business network than the three artists onstage.
Gawley, executive vice president and head of business and legal affairs at REPUBLIC Collective, hosted the evening as chair of the foundation’s board of trustees. Leadership across T.J. Martell includes figures connected to record labels, publishing, artist management, digital music and other parts of the business.
Live Nation joined the 2026 event as the inaugural sponsor of its red-carpet reception, while the sold-out dinner brought together artists, managers, executives, philanthropists and researchers.
Those connections are not incidental to the foundation’s fundraising model. T.J. Martell was created inside the record business and has spent more than 50 years using relationships across music to direct money toward medical research.
Capshaw’s involvement amplified that system. Instead of simply accepting an award, he brought artists and professional relationships into the room, giving the gala access to performers whose presence would be difficult to replicate through a conventional charity booking.
Management is particularly well positioned for that kind of network. Artist managers routinely sit between musicians, touring companies, labels, promoters, venues, agents and business partners, creating relationships that extend well beyond a single record or tour.
At this gala, those connections became visible onstage. Matthews represented the relationship at the beginning of Red Light’s history, while Anastasio and Stapleton showed how far the company eventually expanded.
Six Acoustic Songs Closed a Record Night
The 2026 Honors Gala worked because its music and fundraising never felt entirely separate.
Matthews chose songs he associated with Capshaw. Anastasio connected his performance to personal loss and a decades-long relationship with his manager. Stapleton reached from his SteelDrivers years to “Tennessee Whiskey,” one of the songs that helped define his solo career.
None of them needed a touring production to make the point.
For one night at Cipriani, the usual scale moved in the opposite direction: three artists capable of filling huge venues, six songs performed alone with acoustic guitars and a room focused on raising money rather than selling tickets.
The foundation’s current events archive places the New York gala inside a year-round fundraising operation, while the September 15th total gives its flagship event a new benchmark.
More than $3.2 million will go toward the foundation’s cancer-research mission. Dave Matthews, Trey Anastasio and Chris Stapleton gave the record fundraising night something equally unusual on the music side: six songs, three guitars and decades of shared history with the man being honored.