Rising Stars: Meet Robyn Schopp (Dunegrass Band) of West Olive

Today we’d like to introduce you to Robyn Schopp (Dunegrass Band).

Hi Robyn, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Dunegrass is made up of four people who all met through work. Jason and Tom were interested in learning how to play rhythm and bass guitars, respectively, and Robyn brought 20 years’ worth of formal music training to the situation. Robyn picked up the mandolin, then the group brought David on board to play cajon. Together, this four-piece band of coworker friends started bringing a folk sound to fun and familiar music that people of all ages and varieties can enjoy. They enjoy playing at bars, breweries, restaurants, and community events, and most of all they enjoy bringing the soundtrack for everyone’s good time!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road hasn’t always been smooth – we spent a lot of time learning what kind of music worked for us as well as a crowd, and honestly, even after 12 years of playing together ~20 times per year and practicing weekly, we STILL are only working at playing “off book.” 🙂

But plugging into the community and getting opportunities to play music has actually been the easy part – at least for us! It seems like West Michigan is a rich environment for live music, and we’re glad to be part of it.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a business consultant who specializes in employee engagement consulting and communication skills training. I’m most proud of my TEDxMacatwa talk from 2023 on “Leveraging the Power of Fun to Achieve Goals.” It’s my flagship message, and I think the fact that I’m the front-woman of a band plays nicely into my message of doing what you can from your position to make your work enjoyable for yourself, which will feed into your spreading joy to others who you work with and serve.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Knowing I had something to do with a smile I see on someone’s face. My personal mission statement is to spread and spark as much joy as I can, and Dunegrass (and my business, Gordeaux Consulting) give me two very different avenues to do that. The world is full of stress, sorrow, trauma, and conflict. Anything (big or small) I can do to counteract people’s stressors is what makes me happy and gives me purpose in life. 🙂

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gogordeaux.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dunegrassmi/