Our Music In The Community
- We host several weekly open mics on W. Dearborn Street and the surrounding area;
- We provide our musicians, vendors, and shoppers with a weekly “musical testing ground” for new material, jamming, and great musicians just having fun, during our Sunday Farmers Market;
- We present a monthly Community Music Showcase Event in W. Dearborn Street’s Dearborn Street Plaza, on the County stage; a closed roster of 12 of our regular open mic participants performs for a larger audience, on a bigger stage, for the fun, experience, and exposure;
- Through our Rick Asmega Musicians Scholarship Fund we host periodic cost-shared workshops and seminars, facilitated by experts in their field, that provide education and hands-on experiences to help our musicians become better, faster. The Scholarship Fund is fueled solely by the generosity of our Community through Donations.
Open Mics
Our Open Mics are open to all musicians – from self-taught and just starting out, to highly experienced players (and we’re pretty sure there’s a couple of stealthy, retired pros who come too!)
Age, ability, experience, or genre make no difference – everyone is welcome.
If someone has the guts and wants to get up there and perform, we will provide a non-judgemental space for them to do it. We welcome covers and singer/songwriter originals; we welcome acoustic, acoustic-electric, and electric instruments with stomp boxes (no amps).
Our Open Mic musicians range from self-taught and just starting out, to highly experienced players (and we’re pretty sure there’s a couple of stealthy, retired pros in there too.) Age, ability, experience, or genre make no difference – everyone is welcome. If someone has the guts and wants to get up there and perform, we will provide a non-judgemental space for them to do it. We welcome covers and singer/songwriter originals.
We can accommodate solo performers, duos, trios, and quartets, but no bands, due to logistical issues and time constraints (and more often than not venue size restrictions.) And, we love spontaneous collaborations too!
Navigating our Open Mics is simple – sign ups start an hour prior to the start of the Open Mic. About 15 minutes before we start, we run a random lottery to assign you a slot on the roster and determine the playing order. We’ll continually let you know who’s “on deck” so you’ll have plenty of time to get tuned up and be ready to play.
Vocalists
Guitar Players
Keyboard and
Electronic Percussion Players
Regardless of What You Play...
What People Saying About Open Mic Night!
What People Are Saying About Our Open Mics...
The (Every) Sunday Farmers Market
501 W. Dearborn St., Englewood
(across from Compadre’s Mexican Restaurant)
Everyone has a blast at the Sunday Farmers Market. The vendors and shoppers all love the music, which runs for the full duration of the Market, and sometimes through tear down as well. The music at the Market is totally open – no rosters, sign-ups or advanced notice – just grab your instrument and come and play! We never know who will show up and play on any given week, or what collaborations will happen. We do know that everyone has a great time.
When the Market is outdoors, we provide a large pop-up tent that we play under. As the weather heats up and gets rainy, we move the music indoors along with the vendors.
Please double-check our Calendar for the Sunday Farmers Market schedule…
If you’d like to run the music during a weekly Life Realized Sunday Farmers Market, please contact Bill at 941-500-3443, send an email to: music@liferealized.org, or submit a request to Volunteer. We are always looking for volunteers to help us with existing events, and bring even more events into our Communities..
If you have an idea for a special performance, concert, festival, live streaming event, or anything else musical that we could help you facilitate for our Community, please let us know. Submit the Let’s Chat form at the bottom of this page; Email: music@liferealized.org; submit a Volunteer form; or call Bill at 941-500-3443.
Community Music Showcase Events
Our monthly Community Music Showcase Events (aka Second Sundays in the Park) are a great way for our open mic participants to perform for a larger audience, on a bigger stage, for the fun, experience, and exposure. Held on the second Sunday of each month, a new roster of 12 of our regulars is created to give them a chance to play a mini-set on the County stage in Dearborn Street Plaza (formerly Pioneer Park.) The audience is encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets, and snacks, and plan to enjoy the entire afternoon of great local talent.
Our infamous “blue bucket” makes the rounds during the Showcase Events. Audience generosity at Showcase Events is our primary means of fundraising for our Scholarship Fund. The more green that goes into the blue bucket, the more workshops, seminars, instrument repairs, and individual lessons are available to help our musicians.
Please check our Calendar for the date, time, and directions to our next Showcase Event…
If you’d like to help with the production of a Life Realized Community Music Showcase Event, please contact Bill at 941-500-3443, send an email to: music@liferealized.org, or submit a request to Volunteer. We need help with setup, teardown, program distribution, and promotion to name a few. We are always looking for volunteers to help us with existing events, and bring even more events into our Communities.
Gallery of (Some of) Our Musical Achievements
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Let's Chat
Leave your name and email below along with what you are looking for in the message box.
Or you can call us at 941-681-8188.