With the weather being as cold as it’s been lately, it a great time to get the area garage bands and talented youth out of the garage and on to the stage.
“Youth on Stage” is an open mic night program at the Brainerd Eagles club the fourth Monday night each month. Presented and sponsored by the Brainerd Elks Lodge #615 and is geared for community youth up to about age 25 who have a “family friendly” talent to share. It might be singing, playing an instrument, storytelling, essay reading, poetry, tap dance, comedian, magician, a band or ensemble.
“Youth on Stage” is part of a bigger project, the brain child of Mark Munson. His dream of starting a School Of Rock in the Brainerd area came true when the first School Of Rock was held in August 2017. The event was a huge success which wrapped up with a packed house at the final Rock concert! Once school was out, so to speak, the opportunity for those youth to continue sharpening their skills in a live stage environment was needed to keep the dreams of these talents growing and add more talents to our community pool.
The talent Coordinator for “Youth on Stage”, Mike Owen shared a story with us about how a similar opportunity spurred his interest in performing. Mike states, “When I was in 8th grade a few of my best friends and I decided to play a song for a local talent contest.” He grew up in a small farming town in NE North Dakota so they did not have a large musical talent pool and needed to work with what they had. He continues,
“If you can imagine, 2 trumpet players, 1 tuba player that went out and bought a bass guitar, 1 keyboard player, and me on the 3 piece drum set.” He recalls, “I’m sure it was a challenge to listen to, but the thing is, we all still remember the thrilling feeling of performing and the cheering of the crowd after all these years.”
Mike and his associates hope that they can use this opportunity to allow our area youth get that same feeling.
If you know a young person(or group) who could benefit from performing for a friendly audience this could be a date to put on their calendar. The next event is Monday January 28th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Please encourage them to sign up online at: http://www.YouthOnStageMN.org
What could come of an event such as this for a young performer? Well, Mike Owen reflects that his friend the tuba/bass guitar player in their group, Mr. Michael Clute, went on to become a recording engineer and the record producer for Diamond Rio… “who knows where YOS Open Mic night might lead a young star?”
Join us at B93.3 in supporting local homegrown music and young talents in the “Youth On stage” open mic night at the Eagles Club in Brainerd on Monday.