Musical Overture is an online community of aspiring musicians showcasing their talents before the world and the watchful eyes of conservatory and university recruiters.

It is a place where young musicians find community, performance experience, helpful instruction, and a platform from which they can enter the next stage of their training.

Musical Overture was founded by Terry Lowry  (Conductor and Music Director of the Carroll Symphony Orchestra) and Steve Gradick (owner of Gradick Communications, LLC). I asked Terry to explain the vision and philosophy behind Musical Overture, and how it seeks to be different from other video and music-sharing/networking platforms:

Why did we build Musical Overture?
To make a difference in the lives of undiscovered musicians and empower them to build a better world. We built a place where undiscovered musicians could post videos of their performances, their rehearsals or even videos of them just cutting up and having a laugh.  We built place where their audience would not have to sort through videos of famous performers from the past or of completely unrelated videos.

We built a safe place – monitored by REAL PEOPLE (not computers looking for key words) – where musicians could build a community and their parents can be confident about their security.  We built a place where musicians can receive encouragement, without slash and burn-style comments from frustrated sour grapes.  We built a place where musicians can learn from each other and feel that their voices are being heard, a place where the people behind the music matter.

We built a place where the difference makers – people like university recruiters, agents and conductors – could go listen to and watch the stars of tomorrow.  We recognize how difficult it is to sort through the billions of videos on the internet and how costly it is to travel to hear prospects live.  We built a place – one place – where these difference makers can find the talent they are looking for.

As a young musician growing up in a small town I felt as if I was the only teenager in the world for whom classical music was important.  I felt odd and isolated from my peers, most of whom had never heard of the composers that were so important to me.  I would have done anything to have a community of musicians who, like me, wanted to make a difference in the world through music.  I would have done anything to have the chance to be heard by a difference maker.

Why did we build Musical Overture?  To make a difference in the lives of undiscovered musicians and empower them to build a better world.

It’s free to join Musical Overture and you can browse the site without signing up. More here