Contributed photo
Christian
singer-songwriter
Bizzy Bender
performs at a
coffeehouse on her
50th birthday.
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Bender has been invited to perform, but she first must sell 25 multi-day passes to the festival by June 30.
More than 125 bands will perform at SoulFest on six stages, including headliners, The Newsboys, Jars of Clay, Third Day, Chris Tomlin and many more.
Lesser-known musicians, like Bender, also can perform if they sell the tickets.
"I'm among the group of smaller musicians, the up and coming, unknowns, part of a pledge and promote deal. In order to go, I need to sell the tickets," she said.
The ninth annual SoulFest is the largest multi-day music festival of its kind in the Northeast. Attracting an audience of more than 15,000, it features world-renowned Christian music of all genres, plus guest speakers and authors from around the world.
Bender performs regularly in churches, coffeehouses and other venues around Connecticut and recorded two full-length CDs, "The Plan" and "Drink Deeply."
She is working on her third CD, which includes some "very spirited" songs including, "Dancing in Heaven" one she wrote about her parents, both of whom are deceased. "It's a story of their life, maybe in the next life they will get along," she said.
Other songs deal with depression and becoming a teenager. "It's a tear-jerker," said Bender, who wrote the song for her daughter Michaela, 14.
In March, Bender turned 50 and is more determined than before to drive her career to a new level. She has the sense that "time is running out" because, "performers are younger in all genres, even in Christian music."
Bender writes her own music, a repertoire of 300 songs, jazzy melodies with lyrics about life, sometimes with Scripture and about Jesus, but "never preachy".
The songs are inspired by her story. Twenty-two years of drug and alcohol addiction brought her to her knees and to Jesus, she said.
Bender plays guitar and either performs solo or with her band, a medley of drummer, bass and keyboard, depending on the venue.
In the area, Bender has performed at Walnut Hill Community Church and other churches. Outside Connecticut she has been asked several years in a row to lead worship at an annual Christian conference at the Open Door Community Church in Denver.
In November, she will travel to the island of St. Bart to lead worship for a retreat of 20 couples led by a member of a church in Greenwich where she performs.
Bender started singing at the age of five — Christmas carols at a restaurant in her hometown of Manhassat, N.Y. She took up guitar at age 11 and taught herself to play. In high school, Bender did talent shows and played coffeehouses in college. Eventually she fronted a three-woman, eight-piece band.
In college, Bender majored in horse husbandry and worked for several years as a horse exerciser. She moved to Florida and got work singing in country and western bars" and joined a disco band.
In her 20s ,Bender returned to Long island and was a sales assistant for a family ad business in Manhattan. Odd jobs followed, then she moved to Connecticut and by 30 was married with a son.
Her marriage broke up after five years and Bender, who had started drinking at an early age, hit rock bottom. Feeling depressed and suicidal she found God, joined Alcoholic Anonymous and turned her life around.
Bender attended Christian retreats and started playing her guitar again and writing songs about her faith.
That was in 1989.
Today, in her second marriage with three children, she works on her music, practices martial arts, teaches karate to kids and a music program for pre-school age children.
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Tickets for SoulFest are on sale now and can be purchased at www.thesoulfest.com. Buyers using Bizzy Bender's artist code06band16 will receive a 15 percent discount. From the Web site, go to the soulstore and click on bandmulti-day passes to buy your tickets using Bender's artist code.
For information about Bender and her music, go to www.bizzybender.com. To contact her by email, write to bizzy@bizzybender.com.