Legendary music agent Dennis Arfa, agent to Billy Joel, inducted into Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame
Billy Joel was there to show support for his long time friend.
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Legendary music agent Dennis Arfa was inducted into the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame Saturday night.
It all happened during the Billy Joel Symposium.
“I got into this thing out of a passion for music,” Arfa said.
Arfa was the man behind many famous musicians’ success stories. He has Billy Joel’s agent for nearly 50 years.
Billy Joel himself came to support his longtime friend as he got inducted.
Many people from the music industry came to show their support.
“He's really responsible for a lot of the tremendous success we've had in the live performance area,” said David Rosenthal, musician and musical director for Billy Joel. “And it's exciting to just kind of get the gang together again”
“Dennis has been just this unbelievable warrior for the band, for Billy’s career, since the beginning of time, basically,” said guitarist Tommy Byrnes.
But that’s just part of this weekend’s symposium that celebrates Billy Joel’s artistry, life and legacy.
“You can make plans and have dreams and create things, but when you can have an artist that can take those dreams and make them into reality because they're capable of doing it is a very rare combination,” Arfa said.
“It is an opportunity for scholars and musicians and music and different people to make the case that Billy Joel was actually a very significant artist,” said Tom Needham, executive director of the Billy Joel Symposium.
The symposium has back-to-back speakers and events through Sunday at 8 p.m.
