DList Magazine Summer "Nightlife" Issue 2015 | Page 39

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. www.DLISTMAGAZINE.com 39