NEW YORK — Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles will play a pair of Friday shows at Rockwood Music Hall in attempt to keep the struggling Lower East Side club open.
She’s also supporting a GoFundMe campaign aiming to raise $250,000 for the 18-year-old venue that helped launch her career.
“In 2007, I played one of the first shows of my career at Rockwood Music Hall on the Lower East Side, a venue that then and now represents the grit and determination of New York’s aspiring musical community,” she wrote in that petition. “At that point, I had only ever played ONE show in New York.”
The 43-year-old singer has since won two Grammy Awards and been nominated for three Tonys.
“I genuinely believe that for emerging and developing artists, sacred places like this are the heartbeat and lifeline of the New York music scene,” she concluded.
As of last Friday evening, the fundraiser to save Rockwood had raised more than $35,000 since launching Wednesday. That appears to include a $5,000 donation from producer Alan Menken, who’s responsible for the soundtracks to several Disney films including “The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
Join me in helping keep @RockwoodNYC open!” he tweeted. “It’s a vital venue for independent artists. So many have developed their careers on one of their stages.”
Menken said he’s currently using the three-stage venue to develop a project he has in the works.
Rockwood Music Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in February. The company launched Rockwood Music Hall Recordings in 2013.
The music hall itself launched a GoFundMe page in March 2020 as it struggled to get through the COVID-19 pandemic. Rockwood operators said at the time they were working to reschedule 400 shows per month while supporting a staff of roughly 40 people.
Sting, Norah Jones and Lady Gaga have all paid visits to the Allen Street institution. Lady Gaga recalled being given the freedom to do her own thing at Rockwood when she was first getting started. It was where she first experienced the moment “when we thought we were onto something,” she recalled in a video posted to the venue’s Facebook page.
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