Julliard-educated musician Ramin Abrams has graced some of the country’s most prestigious music venues and now works with entertainer clients at Concurrent.
By Sam Bojarski
As a teenage musician growing up in New York City, Ramin Abrams could often be seen on a skateboard, pushing a cart with his upright bass from gig to gig.
The lifelong bass and cello player played frequently in chamber music ensembles and with his brother, Justin. By age 14, he’d gotten the chance to grace the stage at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall. His talents earned him good money for a boy of that age, and Abrams said he began running his business as a sole proprietorship.
While he initially eyed a career in music, entering the prestigious Julliard pre-college program as a pre-teen, the skills he built along the way have helped him develop into a savvy advisor working with a niche client base of entertainers. He joined Florida-based hybrid RIA Concurrent Investment Advisors in 2023 after spending six years with Wells Fargo.
‘Everything happens for a reason and really led me to where I am today,’ Abrams, of New York City, told Citywire. ‘Relationship building with people was a very comfortable transition for me as a musician just because I can connect with people both through music and planning their financial lives.’
From the cradle
Abrams could hardly walk when his parents put him in a Suzuki-method school for string instrument players at the age of 2. Initially learning the cello, he ended up enrolling in The Julliard School’s pre-college program before he entered his teenage years.
By his own recollection, Abrams (pictured, above) hailed from a musical family that also enjoyed successful professional careers outside of their art. His father, bassoon player Clark Abrams, is the head of the special narcotics unit at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Brother Justin Abrams, a cellist, co-founded and leads a technology company called Flagship that helps brands manage their inventories. Their mother, Tara, does not play an instrument, but the immigrant from Iran has worked as an engineer and as a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch. She ultimately left the latter role to play a more active role in her children’s lives, Ramin Abrams, 30, told Citywire.
‘She got out of the business when I was around 4 years old, but I definitely benefitted from the fruits of her experience in the space. She was able to use her dividends to pay for my music lessons,’ Abrams said. ‘The stock market at the time got me really excited.’
Reflecting on his brother’s early days as a musician, Justin said he was impressed by Ramin’s quick adoption of the bass about a year before getting accepted into Julliard to pursue the instrument further.
‘When he sets his mind to something, he is just an incredible overachiever,’ said Justin (pictured below at left). ‘He’s just incredibly virtuosic, incredibly powerful on his instrument.’
Broadening his horizons
As his Julliard education wound to an end, Ramin Abrams decided not to pursue the conservatory route in his college years.
Instead, seeking a broader liberal arts education, Abrams elected to attend the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied musical performance with a focus on the bass. His education would open doors; Abrams said he worked on film scores and performed the national anthem at Los Angeles Clippers basketball games during his college years.
After school, he spent a few months pursuing a performance career, touring Italy with a chamber music outfit. But he decided to switch gears due to the cyclical nature of gig work.
‘That was challenging for me as I was trying to navigate this passion that I have, and turning that into a profession,’ Abrams said. ‘I did a lot of charity gigs and had a lot of opportunities but it didn’t feel comfortable leveraging those for a career versus having the flexibility to just volunteer and play.’
Abrams went back to the career center at his alma mater, which helped him land his initial job in finance: selling insurance for Los Angeles-based financial services company AXA Advisors.
Seeking more ways to help clients beyond insurance, Abrams hopped briefly to Morgan Stanley, then to Wells Fargo, where he spent more than six years working as an advisor. In early 2023, he joined Concurrent Investment Advisors, per his LinkedIn profile. A Merchant Investment Management-backed hybrid RIA, Concurrent manages about $10bn in assets.
‘I could do everything that I could do at the bank, but agnostically, as I’m not married to a single institution,’ Abrams said of his decision to go the RIA route.
Abrams said he has found his past experiences in music valuable in serving the clients he works with today, including content creators on TikTok and YouTube, fellow musicians, actors and some athletes. All of these clients can earn large income streams that tend to be somewhat irregular.
‘The time horizon for a professional video gamer is about 10 years,’ Abrams said, citing one example. ‘So navigating that and understanding time horizon for people in arts and entertainment has become something I am super passionate about. These are big earners, I’m talking video gamers who are clearing anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 a month from streaming, revenue, endorsements and merchandise.’
Abrams continues to play music extensively, performing at charity events, professional sports games and even showcasing his skills in some of New York City’s premiere venues in collaboration with other musicians. Sometimes, this has direct links to his work as an advisor.
After performing the national anthem as a duet at a New York Knicks game last year, Ramin and Justin Abrams opened up a private box in Madison Square Garden to clients, Justin said. Ramin has also met clients at other musical events, Justin recalled.
For Justin, seeing his brother succeed in building a $250m book of business at Concurrent comes as no surprise.
‘When people know that you spend time mastering [music] on such a level and have the dedication, focus and patience, all these attributes that you hope someone managing your money has, it’s a very positive indicator,’ Justin said. ‘There’s a lot of trust people place in each other in his business, and that trust has led to incredible outcomes.’
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