WHEN I WENT TO MY FIRST LIVE SHOW IN 1995, IT CHANGED MY LIFE.

I’m not shy about admitting that it was a kind of spiritual conversion, a feeling of connection with something bigger than myself, and the community of like-minded people that I found in musical circles made me realize that this was a path worth following. When I got to college, I missed that community, so in 2000 I joined with a few other musicheads and we formed MIMA, originally as a way to bring diverse forms of music to the Princeton campus.

After witnessing more than a decade of work in New York City and around the globe, I relocated to Charlottesville, and decided to start a new chapter of MIMA here in 2016. With an active concentration of songwriters and musicians, the presence and dedication of music industry, as well as a strong event community and individuals and funders who prioritize music and music education, Charlottesville is the perfect place for MIMA. We want to build on the creative capital here in Charlottesville and launch a partnership to pave the way for music education across the globe. As we scale up in Central Virginia, we will create a model that can be replicated in major music cities across the United States, eventually spreading the MIMA Method as far and wide as possible. I can’t wait.