URBAN GARAGE INC
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Mission Statement
Urban Garage teaches practical performance skills and musicianship to teen and young adult musicians who share a passion for musical genres not typically taught in schools, including pop, rock, folk, blues and country. Urban Garage nurtures the growth of young players, singers, and composers by providing them a safe and supportive stage to explore, experiment and collaborate. Equally important to our mission is the fostering of community through music. Urban Garage was founded in 2016 by singer/composer Liz Queler, with free monthly open mics and guided jams. Word spread quickly, growing our community and encouraging us to expand our programs with community service concerts at hospitals, cancer facilities and residences for seniors with dementia. We kept our group engaged throughout the pandemic with online open mics, concerts and music video projects, including a Public Service Announcement (featured on WCBS-TV) to encourage young voters in the 2020 election. We resumed in-person events in June of 2021 with strong attendance, gratified to have kept our organization alive and unified through our art. This summer, responding to requests from our Urban Garage families, we held our first 3-day intensive clinic. It was a great success. Our community continues to thrive and grow, in our unique and inclusive, multi-age “classroom” where middle and high schoolers can share the stage with our Urban Garage alumni, some now pursuing music professionally. It’s a thrill to see them all inspiring and encouraging each other, and a great privilege to guide them on their musical journeys.
About This Cause
Urban Garage is a playing and performance lab, spearheaded by founder/director Liz Queler and her husband, Broadway pianist/conductor Seth Farber. The sessions are open for participation to any young singer and player, and anyone can attend as an audience member. The program averages 25 kids per session, often in front of a full house, with each event unique, improvised and directed according to who shows up and their particular skill set. Urban Garage meets monthly and is ongoing. Evenings start with an open mic for prepared songs, often followed by constructive feedback regarding performance, songwriting or technique. During the second hour, charts are handed out, and Liz mixes and matches kids on various instruments and vocal parts, leading them through the experience of performing as a group. Attention is given to mic technique, dynamics, soloing skills, chart reading, hand cues, and most importantly, listening and responding to each other in a musical setting. While many hours of organization and musical preparation go into every event, much of the teaching is spontaneous, with each song and combination of players presenting new challenges. It’s an electric and supportive atmosphere as the kids perform with and for each other. We celebrate the end of each school year with a gala concert. Needless to say, the pandemic presented serious obstacles, but we adjusted quickly and effectively, offering meaningful musical experiences online, from our monthly open mics to our 90 minute streamed gala concert comprised of 26 elaborate music videos, featuring 37 performers! While immensely challenging, Covid opened opportunities to teach different and valuable skills. Moreso, our eighteen months online reaffirmed the vital role music, art and creativity serve, not only in keeping us connected, but by bolstering our mental and emotional well-being, and bringing some light into those very long months. Solidly back to in-person events, with a thriving group of participants, we expanded our programs this year with a 3-day summer intensive clinic. Fifteen kids ages 12-21 attended three 5-hour sessions at The Bitter End, with donations enabling us to support 3 scholarships. It was exciting to take deep dives into topics we don’t often have the luxury to explore in our monthly sessions. The clinic culminated with our July open mic and guided jam, offering a chance for the kids to perform the pieces we’d workshopped, in front of an audience. Time spent together and the personal and musical bonds that ensued, was a terrific bonus to a terrific week. In August we were invited to bring a small group of Urban Garagers to perform a set at a day long festival in Westchester. We look forward to exploring more performance opportunities this year through city programs, as well as a concert collaboration with Kids Rock For Kids. Urban Garage proudly continues to demonstrate the capacity of music to bridge barriers of gender, age, race, religion and language, and encourages kids to use their creativity as a means of communication as they move forward through their lives.