Trey Anastasio, Dave Matthews and Chris Stapleton to play a cancer research gala

Three of the biggest acts on one management roster are turning out for the man who built it. Trey Anastasio, Dave Matthews and Chris Stapleton will perform at the T.J. Martell Foundation's 51st annual New York Honors Gala on September 15 at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City, where Red Light Management founder Coran Capshaw receives the Lifetime Music Industry Award.

Capshaw's connection to each performer is direct rather than incidental. He founded Red Light Management in 1991 while working with Dave Matthews Band, and guided the group from Charlottesville to a position among the most successful touring acts of the past three decades. The company's roster now also includes Anastasio's Phish and Stapleton, alongside The Strokes, Primus, Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie and Alabama Shakes.

The gala is the foundation's principal annual fundraiser, and its purpose is narrower than the guest list suggests. It brings music industry executives, philanthropists and cancer researchers into one room to fund research at major hospitals. Since it was founded in 1975, the organisation has raised close to $300 million.

Capshaw framed the evening as a favour called in rather than a tribute received. "I've spent my career surrounded by talented and generous artists, and this night will be one more example of their generosity," he said, thanking the three performers and the foundation for more than fifty years of funding research.

Gala board chair Steve Gawley made a similar point from the other side. He said the foundation is unusual because of how the music community rallies around it, called Capshaw a tremendous friend to the organisation, and credited the willingness of headline artists to appear with making the evenings work at all.

The 2026 edition is already sold out. Supporters who want to contribute without a seat can still make a gift or buy space in the event's digital tribute journal, which closes on September 4.

All three performers have kept busy elsewhere in a crowded rock and country touring year. Anastasio recently joined Hank Heaven onstage in New York City, and Stapleton and Guns N' Roses traded guest spots in Canada over the summer.