Live music reverberates through Liguori’s, and Boulder’s, life

BOULDER — She fell in love with the mountains, an affection deep enough to cause her to leave an exciting job as general manager of the live-music club Wetlands Preserve in New York City and come to Boulder without a job on the hope that she could land a position with the yet-unopened Fox Theatre.

Cheryl Liguori is now the CEO of Z2 Entertainment, a Boulder-based entertainment company that oversees both the Fox and the Boulder Theater. She is also CEO of Fort Collins Entertainment LLC, which operates the Aggie Theatre.

Liguori will be among six individuals or groups to be inducted into the Boulder County Business Hall of Fame on Sept. 15 at a luncheon at the Embassy Suites by Hilton hotel in Boulder.

Liguori’s roots run deep in music. After graduating from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, she took positions at advertising agencies. Friends planning to open the Wetlands lured her to help manage the business side of the operation, with responsibility for making the numbers work. 

The club, originally envisioned as a dance club using recorded music, found a customer desire for live acts. And that was hugely successful.

She attended the Telluride Music Festival, which began her love affair with the mountains. Charles Hambleton of the rock band The Samples, which played Wetlands, told her about the new Fox Theatre that was under construction in Boulder. She left New York without a job in 1992, interviewed over a pinball game for a job at the Fox and worked her way into the management of the venue. In 2010, the Fox and Boulder Theater merged operations under Z2 Entertainment, and she has served as CEO of both entities.

Z2 has developed into one of the premier music booking companies in the country. In addition to booking the Fox, Boulder Theater and Aggie, Z2 also books other venues including Chautauqua Auditorium in Boulder, The Riverwalk in Breckenridge, Strings

Music Pavilion in Steamboat Springs, and 10 Mile Music in Frisco.

She noted that her industry can be extremely competitive with slim margins. With the variety that the Fox, Boulder Theater and Aggie provide, Z2 is able to provide options to book bands that Northern Colorado crowds want to hear.

Ligouri is active in the Boulder community; she serves as chair of the University Hill Commercial Area Management Commission. She has served on the advisory board for the Boulder Visitors and Convention Bureau and with Z2 provides support to numerous non-profits.Information about the Hall of Fame luncheon can be found here.

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