One man's dream has taken root in an all-but-abandoned former industrial site, giving growth to an area musical community that taps into the rock and jazz aspirations of youths and adults.
"I wanted to form a musical community," said Dave Brumbaugh, founder of the Uptown Music Collective headquartered at 848 W. Fourth St. "I didn't want it to be one school's musical community. I wanted it to be more of an area musical community."
The collective started out small in 2000. Growing over the years to more than 100 students now, Brumbaugh took a leap of faith this year and moved into a second site, the Pajama Factory at 1307 Park Ave., formerly named the Raytowne building.
The collective started raising money for the expansion in December 2007 and was ready to make the move by the spring, Brumbaugh said.
"We raised about $10,000, and we got $10,000 from the Woodcock Foundation and $25,000 from the Williamsport-Lycoming Foundation," Brumbaugh said. "So with all those generous contributions, we started renovating the space."
The renovations took about four months to complete.
Brumbaugh said the same site had been used as a country line dancing studio so the space was filled with country decor, including hay bales, a corral and even a gazebo.
"We built several walls to separate the venue from the drum studio," Brumbaugh said.
The space was completed by July, and the collective moved in.
"We have three different things we are doing in that area now," Brumbaugh said.
First is "Site B," which offers musicians a place to perform live music.
Second, the collective offers an Audio Video Recording Arts program, a two-year certificate program geared toward educating and inspiring students in the field of audio and video production.
Finally, drum education is offered there.
"We used to have them teach drums here at our Fourth Street site, but the ceilings are high and the doors aren't very thick," Brumbaugh said. "Every little rim shot was echoing. It took me two years but I finally got them out of here," he laughed.
But those drums are important to the musical community of Brumbaugh's dreams.
"It's a place for students who want to be involved with music but maybe not in the public schools," said Jared Mondell, a music history and beginning workshop teacher at the collective.
"In public schools, kids learn to play school band instruments, and that doesn't touch all the kids and what they are into," Mondell said. "We provide the other side, the rock music and jazz side, and that is what creates the community."
Brumbaugh said he saw a need for that type of school in the community when he was teaching high school students and having recitals for them.
"I would get the kids together and they wouldn't even talk to each other," Brumbaugh said. "It was really aggravating."
Once the school formed, Brumbaugh and his staff were able to reach out to public schools and get them involved.
"Once word spread about the collective, we branched out to every school district within 50 miles," Mondell said.
Now students come to study at the collective from as far away as Bloomsburg, Eagles Mere and Dushore, Brumbaugh said.
Brumbaugh hopes that, in January, even more students will find a musical home at the collective.
"A lot of kids get guitars for Christmas and their parents usually spring for some lessons to go with the instrument, because they don't want to hear them play bad," Brumbaugh said, laughing.
