GROUPMUSE DECIBEL
CLASSICAL AMUSEMENT
Written by Charity Mainville Photo by Groupmuse
Remember house parties in high school? Your clique gathering in a basement or a
field with music blaring from a CD player while downing Boone’s or taking shots of
Schnapps. As you got older the parties shifted to apartments and rented houses,
beer and sugary cocktails in red Solo cups with top hits from an mp3 playlist. Now
halfway through 2015, Groupmuse is impacting a new trend in house parties from
the East coast to West and transforming them into house concerts performed by
young classical musicians in homes or intimate venues.
Removing all preconceived notions that can be paired with classical music,
Groupmuse provides a different, unique and unforgettable experience with your
friends or complete strangers that you will most likely be Facebook friends with by
the end of night. The “groupmuses” are created through the website’s (groupmuse.
com) social platform, where anyone can sign up [for free] to be a host or attend a
concert of talented young musicians. For all you little party planners out there, if you
decide to host, Groupmuse makes it easy for you. Sign up, set your preferences of
vibe you want to deliver by answering a few questions, choosing which instruments
are allowed, and voilà, one or a group of musicians is found for you. They will play
two 25-minute sets with no cost to you. Guests are suggested to bring $10 to donate
and bring their own choice of what to drink. It’s like signing up for a dating website
where you are matched a “type” set by you, except this is guaranteed to be a good
match. You don’t have to worry about creepers either. As the host you are allotted an
amount for your friends and for the rest you get to approve the guest list.
Still not convinced? Well maybe the fact that in only two years since it was
founded by a 25-year-old from Boston, Sam Bodkin, Groupmuse has had over
10,000 attendees from combined events and has grown to over 18 communities
worldwide. In Seattle alone, it has grown from one person to over 700 since Emma
Rose Lynn started it ten months ago. A classical musician herself, she heard about
it through a friend that lived in Boston and saw an opportunity to fill a void in the
classical community of Seattle. Even with Seattle’s notorious history of musical
movements, there is still a lack of exposure and opportunity for local [classical]
musicians to make their craft readily accessible to the community. As Emma Rose
explains, “There is no need for archaic formalities or large fancy concert halls--we
bring music to your home or apartment and make experiencing and participating in
great art a part of your daily life. Each groupmuse is entirely unique, yet you will see
the same community of people at different groupmuses so it really is its own social
network.”
Most musical genres have had an era of impact, with EDM owning current times,
but many question what will be the next shift in music. Maybe it’s hard to predict the
future, but Groupmuse is definitely working its way to make an impact on where it
could lead.
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