A Vision for Connecting the World Through Music

Holly Tripp

After more than a decade crafting messages in the corporate world, writer and marketing professional Holly Tripp—also a lifelong musician—felt the pull to merge her creative passions into something more personal and enduring. In 2015, she turned an idea that had been quietly taking shape for years into a reality: Stories of Music, a global storytelling project celebrating the ways music shapes our lives.

The seed for Stories of Music was planted generations before, in the pages of her great-grandmother Gwendolyn’s memoir set in Missouri, circa 1910. In the book, Gwendolyn recounts family gatherings filled with laughter, fiddle tunes, and even impromptu tap dancing—moments stitched together by music and connection. During snowed-in nights, neighbors would pick up their party-line telephones just to listen to local fiddlers play through the static. That image lingered with Holly: People linked across distances, sharing joy through song. It sparked a realization: there must be thousands of stories, just as vivid and unexpected, waiting to be told.

In early 2015, Holly announced the first call for submissions to Stories of Music, Volume 1. She invited writers, artists, and musicians worldwide to share how music had touched their lives. The response was astonishing: more than a thousand submissions poured in, spanning essays, poems, photography, original songs, and short films. The diverse works people shared affirmed what Holly had always believed—that music is a universal language with the power to unite and heal.

That first collection, published in late 2015, became the foundation for an ongoing anthology series and multimedia experience. Each Stories of Music volume blends print storytelling with an online companion edition, where readers can listen to songs, watch videos, and experience each story as its creator intended. Stories of Music, Volume 2 followed in 2017, expanding the community and continuing to amplify the voices of artists and music lovers around the world.

Through Stories of Music, Holly Tripp has built not only a series of books, but a vibrant global circle bound by melody, memory, and shared humanity.