Listen Live Music Moves to Macungie Institute

Listen Live Music, the community music venue that has called the Upper Milford Municipal Center home for the past two years, will hold its last event there before moving to nearby Macungie in 2012. 

The grand finale and a wrap up of 2011 will be the Tony Trischka Band with special guest The Zepp Family on Decmber 17th - Doors 7:30, Music 8pm in the Upper Milford Municipal Center.

Back by popular demand, we are pleased to present Tony Trischka, this time with band, for a holiday infused concert! Opening will be our very own The Zepp Family.

Tony Trischka is a banjo legend extraordinaire.

Equal parts historian, teacher, producer and multi-instrumentalist,  some have declared Tony the best living banjo player. Having taught the likes of Bela Fleck and produced many, including the last two Steve Martin releases, Tony has also garnered Grammy nods, IBMA Awards and multiple Independent Music Awards in his own right. Another Grammy nomination was just announced for Tony as producer of Steve Martin's Rare Bird Alert for Best Bluegrass Album.  This concert is sure to please an expected to be sold out, so please get your tickets ASAP. 

Special guest, The Zepp Family, is a young band featuring siblings aged 11-17 playing bluegrass gospel that will bring joy to your heart.

Doors open at 7:30 and music starts at 8pm

Location for this final event for 2011 is 5671 Chestnut Street, Zionsville, PA

Venue phone 610-966-6419

Email: info@listenlivemusic.org

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ANNOUNCEMENT!!! Beginning in 2012 Listen Live Music will be at a NEW location!!! Starting with the January open mic we will be holding our events at the Macungie Institute  at 510 East Main Street, Macungie, PA 18062. Venue phone is still 610-966-6419 www.listenlivemusic.org

As many of you know, Upper Milford was facing a budget deficit this year and some hard decisions had to be made. The Board of Supervisors are elected officials, voted into office to carry out what is best for the township and its citizens.

While everybody may not always agree with the decisions they make, we have to believe that decisions are being made altruistically and with the best intentions.  One of the line items this year was the rental for the auditorium which is being raised 25 percent. 

LLM's annual rent accounts for a third of the total projected annual income of the auditorium in the line item.

LLM appealed to the supervisors to be excluded from the increase for several reasons: our 501(c)(3) nonprofit status, the value we bring to the community directly with the events that are open to all to attend and the intrinsic value that we bring to the township and surrounding area by bringing and encouraging tourism and the dollars that come with that. 

In addition to our appeal, there were countless emails, letters and phone calls from supporters of LLM, and there were community members who took time to attend the meetings and speak on our behalf.  Thank you so much to all of you!

Unfortunately, it did not impact the decision. More importantly than the rental increase, some have said that the vision and values of the current Board of Supervisors of Upper Milford do not align with this community music organization, and that the increase was a broad swipe and painted with the same brush whether the renter is for-profit or nonprofit, resident or non-resident, community event or private party. As a resident of Upper Milford, I have to believe that our supervisors have the township's best interests in mind and accept and support the decision.  

As Chair of Listen Live Music, I had to put all options to my board for vote. One option that came to us in the last several weeks is a change of venue location to the Macungie Institute, just 2 miles away.  For those of you unfamiliar with the building located at 510 East Main St in Macungie (http://www.macungie.pa.us/Macungie%20Institute/Home%20Page.htm) it is a beautifully renovated mid 1800s school with a warm and welcoming atmosphere. 

It will be slightly smaller than the room we are currently in, but there were so many pros in the decision making process (including comfy padded chairs!!) that far outweighed the very few cons. One of the biggest pros is that the folks in Macungie want us and fully support and welcome our mission of community and artist enrichment thru our events.  The BOD of LLM has done a lot of due diligence in this decision making process and we are pleased and very excited to announce that this will be our new home beginning with open mic in January 2012. We would like to thank Dan DeLong, Upper Milford Township Manager, for his support from the formation of LLM and over the last two years. We would also like to thank office manager Cindy Kuhns for always making sure we got the dates we needed on the calendar.