Our theme for February was “Love is in the Air.” And there certainly was a lot of love in the room when we played Reggies on the 23rd. We often say that our members and their musical tastes are diverse, yet we share a common love for music, for one another and for the experiences we have as part of the Altered Stage family.
CORPORATE ROCKERS BAND TOGETHER AT ALTERED STAGE
— Chicago’s Only Private Club For Non-Professional Musicians Launches Corporate Wellness Benefit and Team-Building Programs —
CHICAGO (January 22, 2018) — It’s been said that “the company that plays together, stays together.” In fact, there is a great deal of research that demonstrates the benefits of employee wellness programs for organizations and the impact of music instruction on individuals. Altered Stage is the place where the two come together.
Altered Stage, Chicago’s only private club for recreational musicians, offers guitar, drum, bass, voice, and keyboard lessons to adults; yet, Altered Stage is more than just music lessons. It’s a journey tailored to each member’s musical aspirations. It’s a dynamic community of people who love music and want to learn and play with others. By day, Altered Stage members are commodity traders, insurance executives, financial and tech wizards, consultants, and business owners, among other things. In their spare time they’re rock stars who share their love of making music with other likeminded business executives.
by Jen Dama
You spin me right round, baby
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
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by Eric Fitzgerald
About two years ago, I moved to downtown Chicago – the move was exclusively for work, and coming from Upstate New York, I didn’t really know anyone in the area. Without anyone to ask where to find a guitar shop to pick up some new strings, I resorted to Google to see if I could find anything nearby. Only about four blocks away, this place called Altered Stage was one of a few results. There was a picture of people playing guitar, so I clicked into the website. After reading the About Us paragraph, completely distracted from my original objective, I ended up reading through every corner of the website with wide eyes. This sounded like the kind of place I had always wished existed.
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by Erik Clausen
I still recall fondly the many times that friend, business partner, and Altered Stage founder Jeff Bergau suggested that I “jam a few tunes” at our annual gathering. Year after year Jeff would try to convince me to play… something… at the summer party and every year, without fail, I would ask if there was an opening for tambourine. After all, despite my lifelong love of music, I was unable to play any musical instrument.
Then, three years ago, everything changed. I don’t know quite what was going through my head when I told Jeff a week before the party that I would somehow play guitar on one song. Somehow.
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