Dear Friends,
In 2005, after decades of performing at nightclubs and festivals, I had the opportunity to perform alongside Meryl Streep and Paul Newman to preserve Connecticut farmland. This experience ignited a vision to play “music with purpose”, like the large-scale Farm Aid event, but applied locally.
Combining my experience as a founder of the hedge fund Bridgewater Associates with musical passion, the early Band Central team began to unite nonprofits, musicians, donors and audience members to help Connecticut families. We set up a foundation called The Band Central Fund.
We attracted John Oates (Hall & Oates), Ronnie Spector (The Ronnettes), Joe Bouchard (Blue Oyster Cult), Christine Ohlman (Saturday Night Live Band), Debbie Davies (Albert Collins) and scores of local musicians who have performed in our shows to inspire generosity and kindness; two essentials to making our community a better place.
We also established partnerships with the Center For Nonprofits at Sacred Heart University and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation to deliver fundraising and event consultation.
Our efforts to conjoin joy and fundraising can be summed up in our Band Central motto - Show Up Get Down Do Good.
Showing up means making a commitment with passion,
Getting down means having fun and keeping our moods light, and
Doing good means being generous and kind.
Many of our nonprofits get some of their funding from government or foundation grants, yet every year they need to fill gaps in funding to keep their programs going. If you are a nonprofit leader reading this letter, and are curious about live music fundraising, contact Paola Murphy, our director of operations at paolagmurphy@gmail.com to set a call or meeting.
Band Central consists of about 150 musicians and nonprofits, each caretakers of Connecticut in their own way. Every act of caretaking, no matter how small, sends out a concentric ring of positive energy to the world. The hope is that if we act as caretakers, we will connect, like the name of our state – “Connect-icut." Through connection and care, we can make our state a better place for our community, our children, and our children’s children.
I hope you find our communications entertaining, informative and useful and will join us by attending our live music events, listening to Band Central Radio on WPKN at 12 noon the 4th Monday of every month, or via the Podcasts App on WPKN Podcasts and following us on Facebook.
Peace and Love,
Rob & The Band Central Team
NONPROFIT SPOTLIGHT
As our country contends with the ongoing immigration and border crisis, it’s refreshing to know that we have an organization in Connecticut, led by the capable and dynamic Susan Schnitzer, that provides legal, economic, linguistic and social services to immigrants and refugees in our community, The Connecticut Institute For Refugees & Immigrants (CIRI).
CIRI President & CEO Susan Schnitzer will join our 12:00pm March 25 Band Central Radio program on WPKN 89.5FM as a special guest. Then at 7:30pm on Thursday, April 4 Band Central will perform for CIRI at Park City Music Hall in Bridgeport, to celebrate the work they do for a rockin’ evening.
TAKE A BREATH
We hope you enjoy this version of “The Weight” from the Playing For Change series on YouTube, featuring Ringo Starr and The Band’s original member Robbie Roberston, along with musicians across 5 continents. Great songs have the ability to bridge divides, inspire and connect us!
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