By Andrew Hughes
It’s that time of year to take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re going. The year of 2025 has been eventful for SAMI, and we’d like to remind our members of everything that’s happened this year. With all that we have planned for 2026, this is probably our last chance to look back until this time next year!
New Board Members
To start with, we’d like to extend a warm welcome to the board members who joined us in 2025. Vince Lowe and Sam Bennett joined us earlier this year, and SAMI is lucky to have them! If you read our interview with Michele Cook published on the website in October, you’ll know how incredible our board members are. They get the job done so efficiently they barely have a chance to tell you about it, so we’ve made a special effort to recognize them. We hope to publish even more interviews with our board members in 2026.
SEAMUS
In March, SAMI and REC Room collaborated with non-profit SEAMUS (The Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States) for its National Conference in Lafayette. Over the course of four days, several venues simultaneously hosted a diverse selection of electro-acoustic performances on both sides of the Wabash River.
SAMI and REC Room held the fort on the east side, hosting three days of performances at The Arts Federation (TAF). We had help from members of SAMI, interns and engineers with REC Room, volunteers affiliated with SEAMUS and Purdue students. This diverse group overcame difficult challenges in bringing this event together, providing a space for a small but committed group of performers to share their art.
The next iteration of SEAMUS is scheduled for May 20-23rd, 2026 at The University of Texas in San Antonio. We wish them the best of luck!
Shirley Martin Scholarship
In May we held the award ceremony for our Shirley Martin Scholarship at TAF. Makayla Beachy received the Mike Lane Horizon Award, reserved for applicants who did not win the scholarship but warranted recognition from the committee for their future potential. She could not attend, so we heard a recording of her song “Pros and Cons”.
We had two runners-up for the scholarship this year, both of whom performed live. Lindsay Lowe was one of them, and she performed “Grandma’s Boots”. Claireen Cheng performed her submission, “Clockwork”, and given that this type of performance was a first for her, we were proud to be in the audience cheering her on!
Elijah Alexander was this year’s winner of the Shirley Martin Scholarship with his recording of “My Red Balloon”. He released the song online in June, and you can listen to it on Spotify. Unfortunately, Elijah can no longer apply for the scholarship as a winner, but our runners-up and Mike Lane Horizon Award recipients of past years can submit again for 2026, provided that they are still in the 14-19 age group. Look out for updates on the website, particularly our scholarships page, in early 2026!
Sync Licensing Workshops
During the summer months, SAMI hosted three workshops on the subject of sync licensing, hosted by Ethan Bates. For the uninitiated, sync licensing refers to the process of acquiring recorded music for airing on film and TV. This was a special opportunity for community members because this process could provide them a healthy income from their music!
Ethan had the credentials to offer these classes for a fee, having landed his own songs on shows as well as others by acting as an agent. Amazingly, though, these first three workshops were free to attend. We went over the different ways supervisors use music in film and TV, and how to cater our work to those settings without compromising our respective artistic visions. We also went into the nitty gritty of metadata, meaning the information embedded into the file itself. This includes artist, album, and description, where we can add details about our work to help give supervisors additional context.
This culminated in a pitch session with a music supervisor working in the industry. We’ve dedicated a separate article to that session, which will arrive sometime in January. Keep an eye out for that!
Bryan Metzger Legacy Award
As we explained in an article from earlier this year, SAMI awarded the Bryan Metzger Legacy Award for the first time in August 2025. The funds for this grant became available due to the closing of the Ouibache Music Festival. In this way, an ending led to a new beginning. In collaboration with Ouibache, SAMI created this award to honor Bryan Metzger, a well-respected sound engineer in the community who passed away in 2020. The award will be distributed on a yearly basis with the goal of providing performance opportunities and furthering arts education in the area.
Our first recipient was Briton Wise, Executive Director of Tippecanoe Senior Services. Mr. Wise is using the funds to bring local performers to North End Community Center, where they are located, to provide entertainment for senior citizens. They have already begun this process, as local singer-songwriter Andrew Hughes visited Tippecanoe Senior Services for an hour-long performance in late October.
Next year, a new page will appear on the website with information on how to apply for the Bryan Metzger Legacy Award. The funds will be awarded at our Shirley Martin Scholarship award ceremony, which will be held in early May. SAMI, in collaboration with Ouibache, is eager to further its mission through this award in 2026 and beyond!
Keep Looking Up: Songwriters Retreat
Early in 2025, SAMI created a survey to ask its members what kind of events they’d like to see. This came after two years in a row of successful week-long workshops dedicated to recording and performance. Excited as our community was for these opportunities, they pointed out to us they were also interested in songwriting. Given the name of this organization, and what brings us all together, it’s no wonder that an event focused on songwriting would come to light.
That’s exactly what came to pass on the weekend of September 19th and 20th. The Keep Looking Up: Songwriters Retreat got its name from a quilt created by Mary Bunte, and her design was inspired by a picture posted on social media by Joe Peters. Joe, along with Justice Fuller, served as our instructors for the weekend. We started off at TAF on the evening of the 19th, sharing bits of songs in a beautiful space and spending quality time with fellow songwriters. This spirit continued into the 20th, as we spent the day at the beautiful Ross Hills Park. We closed with an evening performance at the Purdue Railyard. You can learn more about this retreat in the article we published in September: “Keep Looking Up: Songwriting Retreat Ended on a High Note”.
Grants
We received multiple generous grants in 2025. These funds have enabled our organization to upgrade studio equipment, like the new console installed in July. This new desk provided us more rack space for new gear to continue providing professional video and audio to the community. Some of these grants will pave the way for more exciting events and opportunities in 2026, which we’re excited to share with you!
Our gratitude goes out to the Community Foundation of Greater Lafayette, North Central Health Services, Indiana Arts Commission and The Arts Federation. Thank you for continuing to support SAMI in its mission of providing unique learning and performance opportunities for artists and engineers.
SAMI Website Updates
As a sort of footnote to this collection of curious happenings, regular visitors of the website will have noticed the changes that have taken place. For one, our new logo, designed by Briagha Abrahamson, graces the newsletter and the website, giving SAMI a fresh new look.
On top of that, though, we’ve introduced several new pages, including one recognizing our sponsors, one to share songwriting contests with our members, and one dedicated to the subject of songwriting. We’ve published numerous articles on the news page, including interviews, announcements, recaps, and even tips and tricks. We hope to keep the website alive with fresh content on a regular basis, including monthly updates to the new songwriting page. We’d love your help with that, if you have any ideas for us!
Conclusion
With all that has happened in the past year, we have barely skimmed the surface of what to expect in 2026! Stay tuned for further announcements about workshops, retreats, live performances, and other opportunities hosted by SAMI. The best way to do that is sign up for our newsletter via the contact form and keep visiting this website every so often.