Words by Avery Martin; Photos by Riley Schaffter and Lydia Norton
When IMA visited Fort Wayne, we weren’t just looking for venues or standout organizations. We were looking for signs of a music economy: the people, businesses, schools, nonprofits, and civic partners that help music become more than entertainment.
What we found was a city with real connective tissue. Fort Wayne’s music ecosystem is not centered around one venue, one festival, or one organization carrying all the weight. Instead, there is a growing network of schools, nonprofits, arts organizations, businesses, and civic partners that are beginning to support one another in visible ways.
Alongside the work done by the community, Visit Fort Wayne has commissioned Sound Diplomacy, the global music, culture and creative economy experts to develop a long-term music strategy that positions music as a key driver in the local and regional economy.
To better understand how this ecosystem functions in practice, we spoke with several organizations working across different parts of Fort Wayne’s music industry. Each offered a different perspective on what growth, collaboration, and long-term investment can look like.
Sweetwater
You can’t go to Fort Wayne covering music industry-related topics and not go to Sweetwater. It’s huge. Literally huge. And while most people know it as a music retailer, what became really clear while talking with the team there is that Sweetwater functions as much more than a store. With thousands of employees and a national footprint, the company provides infrastructure that supports music careers, in the systems that exist beyond the stage, the studio, and shows.
We got the opportunity to speak with Jeff Ostermann, VP and Chief People & Culture Officer, and Kenric Knecht, Sweetwater’s VP of Merchandising, about the many different paths that exist in music beyond performing. Sweetwater has built careers in marketing, audio engineering, production, merchandising, sales, and more, all centered around music.
Fort Wayne Philharmonic
At the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, the conversation focused on talent: how it’s attracted, developed, and retained in the region. We spoke with President and CEO Brittany Hall about the scale of auditions and applications the Philharmonic receives from musicians all over the world. For one tuba position opening alone, nearly 90 musicians traveled to Fort Wayne to audition.
The Philharmonic is also helping make Fort Wayne a place where musicians can build actual lives and careers, not just pass through for a performance. Outside of their main performances, Philharmonic musicians are working full-time out in the community, through schools, libraries, and smaller ensemble performances across Northeast Indiana.
Beyond that, the Philharmonic regularly collaborates with other local arts organizations, reinforcing the idea that Fort Wayne’s creative growth depends on organizations building alongside each other rather than separately.
FAME
One of the most important parts of Fort Wayne’s music industry starts much earlier through the Foundation for Art and Music in Education (FAME). FAME works directly through schools to make arts education accessible to students regardless of background or income level.
We spoke with Board President Andie Mosley and Design & Marketing Manager Josh Flores about how the organization introduces students to music and visual art in a very real way. Every year, students create original work around a cultural theme that eventually gets showcased at the downtown FAME Festival. For many kids, it’s their first experience seeing their creativity treated as something worth displaying and celebrating.
Our favorite part of this interview was hearing how former FAME students have grown into professional musicians themselves, including an example of one who later went on to perform with the Philharmonic. It perfectly captures how these organizations are connected. FAME helps plant the seed early, and places like the Philharmonic and Sweetwater give young artists opportunities to grow later.
Fort Wayne still faces challenges several Midwest cities know well: funding gaps, visibility, and retaining creative talent. But the city also has something many communities are still trying to build: alignment. The pieces are not fully connected yet, but they are visible, active, and beginning to move in the same direction.
To continue the conversation, IMA will host Telling the Story of a Music Place: Venues, Audiences, and Fort Wayne’s Sound at the Philharmonic Center on June 5.
This lunch conversation will explore how music venues and cultural spaces can tell stronger stories, grow audiences, and communicate their value as part of Fort Wayne’s broader music ecosystem.
