Musician Links Local Music, Venues with Fans

By Stephanie Tipple

Local musician Tom Lohrmann is working on a project to connect fans, bands and venues in the Northern Virginia music scene.

Lohrmann started the NOVA Music Network, which is a project that combines his love of Northern Virginia and his passion for music. The idea is to network and promote bands, venues and the fans to get the word out there about great music that can be found locally.

Lohrmann, a musician himself who leads the “Tom Lohrmann Band,” and recently decided to start this project after being frustrated by the lack of publicity given to bands in the area.

During the first few months of the project, Lohrmann is collecting information and names of local bands and venues, looking for well-known bands and hidden talents alike. This information gathering is comprised of surveys and interviews of not only the many local bands in the area, but of the fans as well.

Once this first phase of the project is complete, Lohrmann hopes to expand and publish the information and his findings on his website to help network people in the music industry, so there is a more solidified and well-known presence of NOVA bands.

“I hope that this project will grow,” said Lohrman.

And that if so, he will expand the project further and potentially create a website where musicians in Northern Virginia will have the opportunity to show their work and meet others in the industry.

Lohrmann also understands the importance of fans, and has devoted some of the project’s efforts to obtain information about their listening habits, their music interests, where they like to go to shows, and what they’d like to see done differently in the NOVA music scene.

This project has already been a great success, as many fans, bands and venues have been reaching out to show their support of the project, providing Lohrmann with information that will help to connect the NOVA music scene. As for Lohrmann, aside from this project, he also has an interest in a musical career. Along with his father and brother, he also custom creates instruments local musicians.