Relief fund created for local musicians

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) –  Local, professional organist Buddy Shirk said the music world is seeing affects from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s hit me in every aspect of my life basically and I’ve just been scrambling to try to make things work and you know keep my bills current and keep everything afloat as most of my friends have been that are in the music industry,” Shirk said.

“I think we’ve all realized especially in the time of COVID how important music music has become to us. We have reached out to music in all forms and in ways we really haven’t done before,” Music Therapy Gateway in Communications Executive Director Martha Summa-Chadwick said.

News 12 recently spoke with Summa-Chadwick and SoundCorps Executive Director Stratton Tingle on Zoom.

SoundCorps and Music Therapy Gateway in Communications are working to help area musicians who may have been affected by the pandemic.

“The day that Chattanooga and Hamilton county kind of shut down, went on lockdown SoundCorps had to cancel our major fundraising event St. Paddy’s Party on the Parkway which was set to feature around 12 different bands. So you can imagine. If we’re canceling our event, all events have been cancelled for the last number of months and all, pretty much all gigs for live musicians that were scheduled or set up and it’s hit the music industry really really hard,” Tingle said.

Using grant funds from the UNFoundation, they’ve started a relief fund for musicians.

“This musicians fund is to basically create a stipend to help some of the performing musicians who has given so much of their time to Chattanooga and the surrounding area and the gifts that they have with all of that,” Summa-Chadwick said.

If you want to support local performers, they recommend reaching out to musicians and asking if they’re holding virtual performances or see if there are other ways you can support them.

You can also donate to the Chattanooga Musicians’ Relief Fund online through SoundCorps.