What we are

Groupmuse is a worker- and musician-owned cooperative seeking to uplift artists and strengthen broader community bonds through live, intimate performances of historically-rooted music.

At first glance, Groupmuse is an online platform where hosts and musicians organize concerts (which we call "groupmuses") in non-traditional spaces, such as living rooms, backyards, church basements, and public parks.

But ask any long-time groupmuser, and you’ll learn that Groupmuse is about so much more. It’s about building real, in-person community. It’s about bringing friends along and making new ones. It’s about giving and receiving gifts seen and unseen. It’s about closing your eyes and being transported during a particularly powerful passage of music. It’s about feeling connected to yourself, your local community, and the world.


What’s “historical music?”

For much of Groupmuse’s life, our focus was exclusively on western classical music. In the wake of the BLM protests in 2020, we decided to broaden our focus to encompass all historical-rooted music traditions of the world. A groupmuse is powerful not because the music comes from Europe—but because these musical lineages are too powerful, too beautiful, too alive to be lost to the ages. It’s through the connection to humans in space (packed together on a living room floor) and through time (maintaining glorious centuries-old musical traditions) that Groupmuse’s wholesome and transformational community-building power shines.

Of course, every piece of music has historical roots. What’s important to us is that the performers be in conscious relationship with the history of their instrument(s) and their musical tradition(s) and we hold our musicians to that standard.


Why cooperativism?

Integrity for us starts from the internal structure of our company and propagates out. Our small team of core staff are organized as worker-owners in a cooperative. We collectively decide our own leaders, we determine our budget collaboratively and transparently, and we work through hard decisions together.

We recognize that musicians are inherently community builders, that Groupmuse depends on them to develop our shared cultural infrastructure. As such, we needed a structure that invites, meaningfully rewards, compensates, and celebrates our own exquisitely skilled practitioners of these ancient arts. In 2021, we invited a Council of musicians to develop our internal structure for musicians, the keystone organizers of our community. In October 2021, the Council launched our musician-ownership program in the coop, and we welcomed our first ten musician-owners. (You can learn more about that in our article "Become a Musician-Owner at Groupmuse".)

When we dream, we dream of a massive network of Groupmuse cooperatives, each run locally by musicians and hosts, federated into a global ecosystem for live art, all depending on shared infrastructure built and maintained by a central administrative and product team. We’re not there yet, but we have the vision, and the structure as it ripens into reality.


Our values

At Groupmuse, we use these three values to guide our work. By talking about these values and reinforcing them through our work practices, we hold ourselves in alignment around the way we want to show up in the world.

  • Listening: To oneself; to others; to the world. Presence, availability, and connection.
  • Heart: Manifesting love, thought, care, empathy, and honesty in your work and relations.
  • Impact: Commitment to cultural transformation on every scale, from the smallest to the most grand.

Origin story

Groupmuse's origins can be traced back to the Boston apartment of pianist Cristian Budu, in 2010. There, musicians from the New England Conservatory would gather for chamber music house parties that would rattle the rafters with the sweet sounds of Brahms late into the night. Groupmuse founder Sam Bodkin was lucky enough to be invited to these concerts, developed the idea while working for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and put on the first groupmuse in 2013.


Funding

Groupmuse is organized into two distinct legal entities:

  1. The Groupmuse Cooperative is a worker- and musician-led business entity which carries out our daily operations supporting musicians and hosts, delivering successful events, growing the community, and developing revenue streams. It supports itself through event income, community revenue, ticketing partnerships with other concert presenters, and more (and was profitable until the pandemic hit). If you’re interested in investing in the Cooperative, we offer preferred stock in the form of Investor Shares with limited voting rights and capped returns. If you're interested, please contact [email protected].
  2. The Groupmuse Foundation is our parallel 501(c)(3) nonprofit, stewarded by a generous board of arts patrons, which fundraises and supports much of the musician-first work we do. Compensating musicians for their performances and administrative labor is important to us, so initiatives that are musician-first are funded by grants from the Foundation. Anyone can support Groupmuse’s model of keeping live music accessible while guaranteeing musicians a minimum payment, by making a tax-deductible donation to the Foundation. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Foundation, please contact [email protected].

This dual-structure path was carved through many years of challenges and exploration. Groupmuse has always operated along an awkward middleground between a non-profit and a for-profit entity, making it difficult to find aligned capital. In the arts world, we didn’t follow the traditional arts non-profit playbook and structure. In the for-profit world, we weren’t interested in extractive capital. However, with a small seed round in 2014 and a successful community Kickstarter campaign in 2015, we were able to develop a sustainable business model by 2016. With the launch of the Groupmuse Foundation in 2020, we’ve been able to source different capital from different sources, each aligned with the work they’re funding.



Staff

Alfredo Colon

Planetary Music, Social Media
New York City

Erica Joos

Community Manager
Boston

Dara Hankins

Planetary Music, Community Manager
New York City

Sam Bodkin

Steering Committee, Community Manager
Los Angeles

Mosa Tsay

Groupmuse Foundation, Community Manager
New York City

Adrienne Baker

Steering Committee, Muser Experience
New York City

Brie Martin

Community Manager
San Francisco

Alexander Dubovoy

Steering Committee, Product, Press
Berlin

Ben Ross

Groupmuse Foundation
Baltimore

Bree Nichols

Email Marketing
Dallas

Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim

Events, Musician Relations
New York City

Bexx Rosenbloom

Partnerships, Host Support
Philadelphia

Kyle Schmolze

Steering Committee, Product
Oakland



Musician Council / Musician-Owners

Daniel Colalillo

Daniel Colalillo is a highly regarded classical pianist based in New York City. He is renowned for delivering powerful and distinctive performances with a high level of musical integrity. He has received critical acclaim from "The New York Times" and has established himself as a sought-after soloist. He has given solo recitals at prominent venues such as Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Bargemusic, Symphony Space, Columbia University, Princeton University, and has performed in several cities including Philadelphia, San Francisco, Nashville, Toronto, Montreal, and more. Daniel also serves as the Artistic Director of "Classical Keys," a concert series held in Morristown, NJ and NYC where he actively performs chamber music. As a dedicated educator, he operates his own private studio and was awarded "Top Piano Teacher" by Steinway & Sons in 2022. Recently, he became a Musician Owner and serves on the Council of "Groupmuse," a series of chamber music house concerts in the US and abroad. Daniel graduated with a Master of Music from Mannes College: The New School for Music and began playing piano at the late age of 15.

Meriette Saglie

American-Chilean pianist Meriette Saglie, is a prize-winning solo and chamber musician. Meriette is the Founder and Artistic Director of WineMusic in Los Angeles, California, an immersive concert and wine tasting series offering a journey for the senses through the forces of both the musical and culinary arts. As an active performer in her home base city of Los Angeles, Ms. Saglie commits herself to the organization of the intimate concert-going scene in Los Angeles through her involvement with Groupmuse and also contributes to LA's cultural community by performing for concert events hosted by and in benefit of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Meriette is also a dedicated educator, running a private-owned piano teaching studio in the Los Angeles area and guest lecturing for Tonebase Live's piano community.
Dr. Saglie has performed on stages worldwide, including the United States, Chile, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Japan. Her accomplishments include performances at the LACMA Bing Theater in Los Angeles, California, Wiener Konzerthaus in Vienna, Austria, and at The National Austrian Radio: ORF (Vienna, Austria) where she was invited to take part in a live broadcast performance and symposium with famed pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy.
Meriette Saglie attended the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music where she earned a Doctor of Musical Arts with distinction. Prior to this, Meriette benefited from a unique and globally-enriched musical upbringing. The Los Angeles native began her musical studies at the age of 4. At age 13, she branched out internationally, with admission to the prestigious pre-college program of the University of Music in Vienna, Austria and, subsequently, the Music Conservatory of the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile. Because of her international background, she offers a versatile and well-rounded array of perspectives on both her musical and entrepreneurial vocational commitments.

Stephanie Ray

Stephanie Ray is a creative entrepreneur, flutist, and curator of musical projects based in Baltimore City. Stephanie is a founding member of Pique Collective, an experimental quintet that explores original compositions, improvisation, and modern performance practices through unique collaborations and integrations with local makers, spaces, and artists. She is a core member of Baltimore’s musical arts cooperative and modular chamber orchestra, Mind on Fire, through which she has shared the stage with local artists such as the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Dan Deacon, Jamal Moore, Liz Downing, and Infinity Knives.
Stephanie is the co-founder, co-owner, and CEO of Baltimore Music Box, LLC; a digital audio workspace and music equipment lending library in the new Center for Community, Arts, Education, and Training, Baltimore Unity Hall. Since 2011, Stephanie has co-directed hundreds of free concerts with the Baltimore chapter of Classical Revolution including featured shows on WTMD Radio, and collaborating with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Alash Ensemble, Baltimore Boom Bap Society, Shodekeh, Eze Jackson, Jasmine Pope, Outcalls, and many other independent artists throughout the city. In 2021, Stephanie began co-organizing a free summer concert series in her community and surrounding neighborhoods called Arts in the Parks, featuring local performing groups in public spaces that have been traditionally redlined.
Stephanie enjoys a busy freelance schedule, regularly performing with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, National Cathedral Choral Society, Post Classical Ensemble, and the Maryland Lyric Opera. As a recording artist, she has worked with artists Dan Deacon, Loris, Bobby Ge, Ledah Finck, Tim Holt, and Brittany J. Green, and has recorded video game projects with Oxide Games. Stephanie holds degrees in flute performance from the University of Texas at Austin and Peabody Conservatory. Outside of musical life, Stephanie enjoys traveling, playing video games (Genshin Impact!), and being an active board member of her community association.

Ian Scarfe

Pianist Ian Scarfe enjoys a busy career as an advocate for music. He manages a busy performance calendar that includes solo, ensemble, and orchestra appearances, which take him across the United States and Europe. An entertaining and articulate speaker, Scarfe finds himself equally at home in formal concert venues, halls of higher education, and casual events such as house concerts and jazz clubs.
Scarfe is the founder and director of the Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, an adventure-based touring festival that has brought musicians from all over the world to scenic rural Northern California. Since 2011 the festival has presented over 500 public concerts free and open to the public, with a special focus on rural communities and unexpected outdoor venues in scenic wilderness areas.
Scarfe makes his home in the Presidio of San Francisco with his wife and two cats. His sports career was short but spectacular - he enjoyed a position as the starting pianist of the San Francisco 49ers, performing in the stadium club restaurant in Candlestick Park from 2010 until the stadium was demolished a few years later.

Jay Julio

Originally from Uniondale, New York, first-generation Filipino-American Jay Julio (b. 1997) is a multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and composer-arranger currently serving as Violin III / Viola on the North American tour of Broadway’s Hamilton. Jay is the Assistant Principal Violist of the Opera Philadelphia Orchestra, substitute violist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, the Dallas, Memphis, Charleston, and Virginia Symphonies, and has been invited to play with the New York Pops, the American Composers Orchestra, the Metropolis Ensemble and PROTESTRA. Recent appearances include solo turns with the Ocala Symphony, the Marquette Symphony, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and chamber music performances on the TIME SPANS Festival with the Talea Ensemble, the Broadway Advocacy Coalition‘s Arts in Action Festival, and at the Museum of Modern Art.
They appeared in the official collaborative music video for Major Lazer & Marcus Mumford’s single, Lay Your Head On Me, released as a fundraiser for COVID-19 research efforts, performed with Nigerian artist Burna Boy in his Hollywood Bowl debut, and have played behind Audra McDonald on Carnegie Hall’s Great Artists series. A prizewinner in national competitions held by the YoungArts Foundation, the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Music Teachers National Association and recipient of a 2019 Juilliard Career Grant, Jay is indebted to the Virtu Foundation and the American Viola Society for their past support through instrument and bow loans. They were recipient of a 2020 Music Academy of the West Fast Pitch Award for their music-meets-prison-analysis organization Sound Off: Music for Bail, which has since been awarded grants from the Juilliard School, the YoungArts Foundation, the Surdna Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, the Copland Fund, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and New Music USA.
After taking their first viola lesson at age 14 at the Mannes Preparatory Division, Jay graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy at 16 studying with Renee Skerik with their highest musical honor, the Young Artist Award, received their BM in Viola Performance from the Manhattan School of Music under Karen Ritscher on full scholarship, and received their MM at the Juilliard School on a full-tuition Susan W. Rose Fellowship under the tutelage of Heidi Castleman and Misha Amory. Other important mentors include Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti and Lina Bahn. For rhythm, Jay studies poetry.

Melanie Chirignan

Melanie Chirignan is a flautist known for her musicality and versatility of repertoire. Her eclectic tastes have led Melanie to collaborate with many different performers and ensembles. As an orchestral player, she has performed with: New York Chamber Players Orchestra, Albany Pro Musica, Octavo Chamber Orchestra, Glens Falls Symphony Orchestra, Garden State Philharmonic, the Chelsea Symphony, Gateway Classical Music Society, S.E.M. Ensemble, and Hartt Independent Chamber Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Melanie has performed with Quintocracy, Stringwynde, jazz bass legend, Nat Reeves, traditional Irish harpist Hailey Hewitt, Philadelphia Fife and Drum Corps, guitarist Oren Fader, and the Alturas Duo. She has performed at Alice Tully Hall, Symphony Space, Opera America, the DiMenna Center, Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, Tenri Cultural Center, for Composer's Voice Concert Series, Cornelia St. Cafe, the Connecticut Guitar Society, at many public library concert series’ including Troy, the Windsor Historical Society, the New Britain Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Windsor Art Center, and the Wadsworth Museum of Art, Proctors, among others. As a soloist, Melanie has been featured with the Chelsea Symphony, performing "Poem" by Charles Griffes.
Melanie believes strongly in being innovative and collaborative with music and has worked closely with many composers and has premiered new works including: Alex Ford's "Berus in the Woods" in collaboration with Electric City Puppets (thanks to a grant from the Schenectady Community Arts Council), Ralph Raymond Hays music to the story "Keller's Heart" by John Gray and illustrated by Shanon Obelenus, used by permission of paraclete press (thanks to a grant from the Schenectady Community Arts Council), Nolan Stolz (Princess Ka'iulani, released on SCI/ Parma Recordings), Masatora Goya, Sean Pallatroni, Kary Contreras Galindo, and made the world premiere recording of the Delian Suite, from a body of international composers in the Delian Society. She has recorded several works for Masatora Goya's album, Dream Of Sailing, available on ITunes and Amazon. She also recorded "Latinos Ni de Aqui Ni de Alla" on the Latin Heartbeat Orchestra album, El Regreso. She is currently recording an album of flute and guitar music by all women composers with guitarist Scott Hill. She is about to premier music to the silent film Nosferatu by Sina Kiai (thanks to the Saratoga Community Arts Grant). In December, Quintocracy will present the music of Women Composer's on the Lift Series at TSBMH thanks to a New York Women Composer's Seed Money Grant.
Originally from Hauppauge, NY, Melanie Chirignan earned her bachelor’s in Music Performance and Music Education graduating magna cum laude from SUNY Fredonia and her master’s degree in Flute Performance at the Hartt School. She has taught general music, chorus, and orchestra, and has taught every level from elementary school to conservatory level students and was adjunct faculty at the College of Saint Rose. With Alturas Duo, Melanie has taught workshops on the "Origins of South American Folk Music" through Hartford Performs. She is currently freelancing and teaching privately. Members of Quintocracy are artists in residence at Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Quintocracy offers workshops for schools through BOCES.

Staff emcees

These amazing people facilitated our virtual events during the pandemic.

Lily Press

Los Angeles, CA

James Jaffe

San Francisco, CA

Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim

New York, NY

Ianjoe Chang

New York, NY

Eric Silberger

New York, NY

Simon Linn-Gerstein

Los Angeles, CA

Dara Hankins

New York, NY

Mann-Wen Lo

Los Angeles, CA

Alfredo Colon

New York, NY



Special Thanks

Emily Chiappinelli

Creator of the Massivemuse

Mike Gallagher

Special Adviser, New York City


Additional Thanks

  • Ben Miller
  • Emma Lynn
  • Ari Borensztein
  • Sebastian Bäverstam
  • Cristian Budu
  • Yannick Rafalimanana
  • Nicolas Hugon
  • Brian Dixon
  • Alex Hugon

Groupmuse would not have been possible without the help of these generous folks.







The painting that appears around the website is of Franz Schubert, one of the great artistic geniuses in human history, sitting at the piano, surrounded by human warmth. In the early 19th century, Schubert's friends, supporters and fans would gather in Viennese homes and listen to him and other musicians perform his compositions, interspersed with sounds of laughter, excited conversation, and glasses clinking and being refilled. Seem familiar?

This tremendous masterpiece was painted by Gustav Klimt, a great Viennese artistic genius of a century later. And here we are, a century after Klimt's Schubert at the Piano, keeping alive the vision of these two heroes of culture.