New York musician Marissa Lerer to open The Listening Booth in Lewes

Local musicians will have a new home and visiting performers a new venue when The Listening Booth opens in Lewes next year.  

The “music venue, coffee shop and multi-purpose space,” as The Listening Booth is described on its website, is still under construction at the Vineyards residential and commercial complex on Route 9. Owner Marissa Lerer intends for it to serve “as a haven for music, musicians and culture appreciators looking to be entertained, build community and support original art.” 

The New York City musician is southern Delaware’s gain after she moved to the Lewes area during the pandemic. The 41-year-old wrote music, sang and played guitar in the city for over 15 years and has a degree in music education from New York University, where she said she ran the school’s songwriters and performers society. 

While music has always been Lerer’s passion, she also has a master’s degree in “graphic communications management and technology.” That led to her working as chief technology officer of a digital marketing firm for seven years, she said. 

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Since then, she’s been “jumping from job to job” and feeling unfulfilled. Upon moving to Delaware, she was excited to perform, but had trouble booking gigs playing her original music.  

“We have so much great music here in Sussex, but it’s mostly covers,” Lerer said.  

She became determined to create a community for musicians like she had in New York. 

“That’s what I did on any given night,” she said. “Listening to my friends play their original music, singing harmonies on stage, doing song circles where we helped each other write songs.” 

She was accepted into the Launcher program in Dover, a nonprofit entrepreneurship guidance course. It culminated with a business pitch contest and Lerer pitched The Listening Booth.  

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“I was one of the winners of the competition and that was sort of a solidifying factor, that sort of said, ‘Oh, I have something here,’” she said. 

There were other catalysts. At the end of 2021, she broke her ankle, and a few days into 2022, she got laid off.