BAM reaches out to music lovers

New nonprofit group Bloomington Area Music aims to connect people involved in the Bloomington music scene into a network that can support and promote local music efforts together.

“There are organizations for classical music and for jazz music,” BAM board member Sarah Flint said. “It makes sense if all the other genres could get together and help each other out in the same way.”

Flint is a guitar and voice instructor based in Bloomington.

The organization was founded earlier this year by a group of area musicians, including Flint, Emily Brown, Marc Tschida, Ron Kadish, Skip Daley and Scott Kellogg.

BAM is still in the grassroots stage – their most current project involves preparing their Web site, which will offer a complete listing of musicians, venues, music instructors and local media in Bloomington. Listeners will be able to find local bands and musicians, concert dates and music instructors.

“When I go places, I want to know where to go to see the hot local talent,” BAM Marketing Director Steev Wisher said. “We want something where you can find out what’s going on in Bloomington for entertainment.”

Wisher said that musicians will have the chance to easily connect with other musicians in the area.

“It’s always been like sticking something on a bulletin board if you’re looking for a bass player,” Wisher said. “It doesn’t work.”

Musicians will also be able to find local venues to perform at, which Wisher said can be a difficult situation.

“We want acts to get to the right venue for them,” Wisher said.

On the future Web site, Wisher said that both venues and interested listeners will hopefully be able to use links to sample local performers’ music.

BAM also hopes to offer a complete calendar of events for music in Bloomington. A major venue already on board with their efforts is the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.

“We’re just finding out about all of the venues,” BAM Chairwoman Emily Brown said. “We’ve been meeting with a lot of different venues to see what they need.”

BAM puts on monthly socials at 7 p.m. on the last Sunday of every month at Crazy Horse. The socials offer a place where anyone interested in getting involved in the local music scene can socialize and network with other music-related people.

“What we need right now is as many people involved as possible,” Wisher said. “We’re very new.”

Musician Robyn Rutar from Martinsville recently joined BAM on Sunday.

“I only really joined because I love music and I thought I may be able to meet some  
people with the same interest and hopefully find someone to help me with the guitar/bass part on the songs I’ve written,” Rutar said in an e-mail interview.

BAM’s future ambitions include increasing their funding, throwing an annual BAM concert and sponsoring monthly concerts around town.

“Right now, we’re focusing heavily on getting the funding and getting local people behind us,” Wisher said.

Flint said that BAM also hopes to provide workshops on different topics for interested local musicians who want help with things like technology and knowing how to present yourself correctly to a venue.

Wisher, who performs his music with two different groups in Bloomington, said that past efforts to unite local musicians were unsuccessful because they tried to focus on too many different forms of entertainment at once.

“I’ve been involved in the scene for about 20 years, and there’s never been a cohesive effort to elevate the music community,” he said. “The board of BAM is almost entirely performance musicians. Previous attempts didn’t have that.”

There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in BAM. Wisher said they are looking for people who want to help plan events, contact new, unknown performers and contribute to and hand out BAM’s bi-monthly newsletter, Siren.

Brown recognized that BAM seems to be attracting many middle-aged singer-songwriters, so they want to balance that by appealing to younger musicians, too.

“We need volunteers, and we really need Jacobs School of Music students,” Wisher said. “Right now, the organization is entirely the community.”