Great Lakes Acoustic Music Association

Dedicated to promoting, performing and preserving acoustic music.

Dedicated to promoting, performing and preserving acoustic music
Great Lakes Music Association

GLAMA is an organization dedicated to enjoying and learning roots music from a variety of genres such as folk, bluegrass, blues, country, singer-songwriters, and more, played acoustically with stringed instruments. We welcome players and singers of all abilities to participate and learn from each other at our regularly scheduled monthly gatherings!

Dear friends of the Great Lakes Acoustic Music Association (GLAMA):

During this holiday season, the board of directors of GLAMA wishes to express its appreciation to all those who helped support our mission with your contributions over the past year. Your dollars have helped us to expand and promote the influence of acoustic music in Kalamazoo through our educational and entertainment programs throughout 2025.

GLAMA continues our well-established Open Pub Jam, which is back at Old Dog Tavern. The Slow Jam occurs at the Kalamazoo Public Library for novice players; which had high attendance again this year. We also carried on with the popular Village Stage Live at the Richland Community Hall. GLAMA’s High School Song Circle at Portage Northern helps us connect with a younger and more diverse group. we had two new activities this year. The first being an Instrument Petting Zoo which was held at the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts in November. GLAMA Board Members and friends were on hand to encourage interested folks to try out various types of stringed instruments such as banjos, guitars, mandolins and bass guitars. There was a very good turnout with both young and old trying the instruments. The second was GLAMA partnering with the K’zoo Folklife Organization to sponsor the annual Loaves and Fishes Benefit Concert. It was a great night of music for a very worthwhile cause.

In 2026 we hope to engage the entire community by seeking funding for organizing and staging concerts featuring artists who can also conduct a masterclass learning experience on the same day.

Acoustic music is indeed alive and well in Kalamazoo, but your continued support is crucial to our mission of preserving, promoting, and performing acoustic music. GLAMA is a volunteer, non-profit organization and every dollar that you donate goes directly to our programs. Your belief in our mission is the foundation on which we will build our future.

How you can donate:

  • Online at our donation page where you can donate through PayPal or the debit/credit card of your choice.
  • By mail by sending a check to:
    • Great Lakes Acoustic Music Association.
    • P.O. Box 50781
    • Kalamazoo, MI 49005.
  • GLAMA is a publicly supported 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible.

While we don’t have prizes or merchandise to share, we do have music and musicians. I’m sure that for donations of $250 o more we can arrange a private concert for you and your friends/family!

Thank you for your generosity. Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy Holiday Season.

-Your GLAMA Board Members

We are excited to announce that GLAMA, along with the Library staff at Portage Northern High School, has received a generous grant from The Wisner Family Foundation to fund a collection of guitars, mandolins, and banjos to be housed at PNHS for students to check out for their own use! We hope that this helps reduce the financial barrier for students who want to learn to play an acoustic instrument. In addition, board members of GLAMA have been hosting monthly after-school slow jam sessions to help students build the same skills we are working on at our monthly public slow jams!
We couldn’t make all this happen without your continued support and inspiration! Thank you to the entire GLAMA Family, and to the amazing librarians around our community that help bring music to us all!

Good news!

GLAMA is also the grateful recipient of a grant from the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation! This grant will help us build future master classes, concerts, and community events to continue our mission of performing and preserving acoustic music in Southwest Michigan! A special thanks to all those who helped support this endeavor.

GLAMA would like to publicly thank the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs for awarding a grant to our organization for the purpose of funding anti-racism training. We are also grateful to our state elected officials including Governor Whitmer, Senator McCann, and Representative Morse for their support of the arts.

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