Marilee Townsend-Alcorn- Artistic Director
The GigSpace is intended to enlighten, inspire, educate and promote music and musicians. Our GigSpace Art Gallery showcases local artists in a revolving art show. We reach out to our audiences and engage the community, as our artists present concerts, masterclasses, workshops, music courses, and encourage participation in our Thursday Music nights. The GigSpace was designed to provide musicians with an opportunity to perform in an intimate listening environment, while allowing them to focus on their craft, reach out to the audience, and give truly brilliant performances. This space was created for musicians by musicians.
Tim Bedner - GigSpace -director welcomes the audience.
The Gigspace is a non-profit registered charitable organization. Registration Number 84740 0702 RR0001. We welcome your support, your input, your enthusiasm and your help in developing this dedicated artistic space. In order to accomplish our objectives, GigSpace needs to generate revenues and looks to tickets sales, corporate sponsors, grants, and donations. If you would like to help support GigSpace in their endeavours, please contact us to make a donation. If you are a musician please consider donating a few music tracks to our online music library.
How we came to be: The GigSpace was transformed from dream to realization when Alcorn Music Studios (a locally owned, independent music school teaching private lessons and music courses) relocated to their new location on Gladstone Avenue, Ottawa, Ontario in September 2011. Inspiration was drawn from GigSpace Santa Fe and the founder Bruce Dunlop who graciously shared additional information with us.
The new and much larger location for Alcorn Music Studios featured a professional sound recording studio and concert space, which was immediately earmarked for the GigSpace venue. The courses which AMS had created and the masterclasses and workshops they had hosted for the last 5 years, including “Inside the Music Lecture/Demo/Concert” Series, were also transferred to the new GigSpace in September 2011.
The GigSpace immediately applied to incorporate as a non-profit organization with charitable status, to reaffirm the space as a community performance venue intended for education and growth of amateur and professional musicians. The small board of directors (who are mostly musicians) has since worked tirelessly on a volunteer basis to build the programming, book concerts and workshops, and spread the word about this new venue.
The reviews from musicians who have performed have been overwhelmingly positive, with comments about the superb sound to the beautiful intimate atmosphere to the positive vibe that exists in the space.
The concept of Alcorn Music Studios and Gigspace is to bring the music full circle. This circle starts when toddlers are first exposed to music, and continues as they take music lessons and perform their first recital in the GigSpace. They join ensembles and bands, with some students continuing studies into University. This circle comes around when music graduates become teachers, who then encourage children, students and adults to discover the joy of music through their instrument.
When professional musicians perform in the GigSpace or give masterclasses, we encourage musicians, music students of all ages and music fans to attend. The inspiration and passion for sharing music and giving back through teaching and performances is clearly evident. Students and professional musicians alike are encouraged to stretch their boundaries and pursue their creative potential.
Coming soon- We are excited to give you a sneak peek at our fun and unique way for you to offer your support and hear great music: Music Gift Cards: Explore a variety of excellent music while helping us present more live music by purchasing a GigSpace Music Gift Card. For $10 you can download any 10 music tracks from our Music download site. Our site will be continuously expanding as musicians from across the country generously donate music tracks to the GigSpace Music Download site. These cards are available for purchase at 953 Gladstone Ave. in Alcorn Music Studios or you can order Gift Cards from our website. Visit our Music Download page.
