Welcome to

The University City Musician Documentary Project

We are in search of how the roots of arts and music formed and maintained themselves in the Midwestern American city of University City, Missouri, founded, a town founded in 1906 adjacent to St. Louis, Missouri.  Our hypothesis is that since there seems to be an unusual number of people that have passed through University City (aka "U. City") that have gone on to be professional musicians or music professionals at some point in their lives, that music and the arts have transcended being just a pastime, but a part of the culture of the city.

Sounding The Chord is the search for and recording/reporting of individuals that have 1) lived in the city of University City for at least 1 year of their lives, 2) gone to school in at least one of the public University City schools for one year of their lives, and 3) spent at least 1 year of their lives as a paid, professional musician or music professional.  The goal is to interview these people in the places where they live and work now and show them doing what they do currently or what they did in the past as it related to music.

This is a "documentary project" and not just the traditional "documentary".  What does that mean?  It means that there is not just going to be a 90-120 minute film that can be watched on movie screens or TV sets once all the work is completed years down the line.  This is the early 21st century, so the plan is to approach this task so that full advantage can be taken of the audiences and distribution methods of today.

Here on this site we have a page devoted to articles and a blog that will have stories about the subjects of the project, stories from the road about making the project, and additional facts and related notes about this subject.  We also have an audio podcast that can be subscribed to and downloaded by anyone so that they can hear original interview and performance experts and even previous recordings by the interviewees.  And finally on the multimedia front already have some videos posted.  We'll put up fresh interview snippets, features, old U. City related video, and possibly streaming live feeds.

In short, you are already taking in the documentary and wil be able to continue to do so with fresh content until final shooting ends (tentatively scheduled to end at the end 2012).  We don't anticipate a finished movie or series of movies until at least the end of 2013.

With the number of subjects that fit the criteria already at more than 175 and the list growing quickly, you won't have to wait until we toil in the background to enjoy the work.  This is the work.  Shooting for this project began in March of 2011, but the idea for everything began long before that.  (Click here to read a bit more about how it all got started.) As of the end of 2011, we have done full interviews with 49 people, videoed in 35 different cities in 14 different states in the US and have been in touch with other U. City musicians in Canada, Brazil, The Virgin Islands, Scotland, Spain, Jamaica, Bolivia, and Australia.  We'd like for all that see this site to connect via the links on the sides for the mailing list, Facebook, and Twitter so that we can keep spreading the word and make sure that we find as many people as possible to interview.

So now, please explore this site.  There are areas that are still under development and some hidden areas that aren't ready to be shown at all.  But if you click on the links below, you'll find plenty of content.  Thanks for coming along, and feel free to let us know what you think about what you see.  Enjoy!

We are seeking donations to help defray costs of production for this very large project.  If you wish to contribute, please click the "Donate" button below.