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Dear Tubeneters,

At the and of the year our band will be the host for a very prominent brass soloist, for a concert and masterclass. We are very happy that our invitation was kindly accepted, and we can organise an unforgetable event.

I just would like to ask those of you who are maybe much more experienced in organising concerts, masterclasses with very well known soloist: are there any very important details? I mean special details, on which we must especially take care of? We maybe would like to invite him or somebody else again to us..., so it would be very important that he'd enjoy his visit.


If you have any ideas please share it with us, very appreciated!!

Thank you!!

I'm sure they will let you know what you need to provide. Some artists are very demanding.

A friend of mine had one of the service bands perform. When the podium he supplied turned out NOT to be the right height the commanding officer refused to do the gig and one of the assistants galantly came onstage and somehow managed to conduct the performance alone.

Be glad you don't have Sheryl Crow. For each show, she requires 12 bottles of Grolsch beer, 6 bottles of "local" beer, and a bottle each of "good Australian Cabernet" and "good Merlot." Promoters are directed to purchase specific booze depending on what day of the week the concert falls.

When this Global Warming Warrior hits the road, her touring entourage (and equipment) travels in three tractor trailers, four buses, and six cars. I don't care how much biodeisel fuel you use, that's a big carbon footprint!

If yer goofin' around, here's is a site listing some other artist demands

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstagetour/index.html

bloke wrote:

Alex C wrote:Be glad you don't have Sheryl Crow. ...

...but only ONE square of toilet paper... :?


bloke "...or hasn't that been quite obvious?" :shock:

I just read that!

If she only uses one piece of toilet paper that must prove she's not full of....

here's help... for those not following Bloke's line of jokes...



http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6583067.stm

Shake up a 2L bottle of pop for instant bidet. Do it with a friend. Kinky.

Call or e-mail him and find out what he's gonna need. If he gets that and finds himself in good company, he should be quite happy.
Barry Little of Nomad Studios in Daphne, Alabama, lent me a C.D. he recorded (and recorded well) of the Mobile Symphony Christmas concert featuring Sotto Voce tuba quartet. Cut 5 had Sotto Voce earning their money and then some. I don't know what they paid those guys but it wasn't enough. I read about them in another thread. The boys can play.
http://www.johnreno.com/news.html

From chairing our Long Island Howard Hovey Tuba Day annually, I've had some experience with this. Be sure that your guest knows, up front, what is expected of him/her. Be organized and have a schedule so your guest knows when they have to be someplace and what exactly they are to do there: clinic, masterclass, concert, etc. Also, have a contract so everyone is clear as to what fees will be paid. Then, when they arrive, just be polite and cordial and have a good time. Each year, our Tuba Day guest artist stayed at my house. Maybe it's just tuba and euphonium players, but all of them (26) were great people, happy to be our guest (and they were great players!!) Just be organized. You guest will appreciate it!

Earlier in life – (In college) I managed to hack off my fair share of ‘artists’. When I learned to remember is that while this may be a single big event for me, this is the ‘artists’ full time job. Everything they say and do and how they are perceived has a direct effect on their career. So when you as an event organizer are providing for them you need to do what you can to assist them in being successful. Although most of the riders seem outrageous or over particular they come out of artists feeling screwed (not having their needs provided).

If you provide for some basic needs your ‘artist’ will be perfectly OK – you don’t need to bow down and worship the artist or break the bank – asking how you can provide will go a very long way in making the ‘artist’ feel welcome:

- If they are traveling in from out of town have a couple of people available with clean transportation to pick them up at the airport, carry their luggage and instruments. It doesn’t take a limo – a clean car and nice, clean cut people are fine.

- Make sure they have a clean, quiet place to stay if spending the night

- Provide a quiet place at the venue for them to call home, rest or just get some private ‘think time’. Make sure it has at least one very comfortable chair (sitting in metal and plastic chairs will kill one’s back after a few hours). A private restroom will earn a lot of points for you. The locker room is not a good option.

- Ask if they have any special dietary needs and provide for them. You never know if you are the 4th group to give them Stouffer’s Lasagna that week. – Most artists are very reasonable when asked – they only seem demanding when they aren’t allowed to give any input.

- When planning their schedule make sure to provide a 1 hour break for every 4 hours of instruction/performance time and if they dine with the group from the class, they are allowed a 20-30 minute break before heading back to class/performance. A lot of folks don’t realize that if you have the artist eat with the students, they will often continue talking or instructing through the meal time- effectively not having a break.

- Have someone designated as a ‘runner’ that can go get things quickly (forgotten prescriptions/medicine, forgotten clothes, etc).

- Find out what dry-cleaners are close and can press a shirt/pants/suit within an hour (assume the artist’s luggage is going to get crumpled).

Good luck with your event!

It's too bad the Brass Bulletin doesn't come out anymore. There was a section in each issue with contact numbers of various brass players from all over the world. I came very close to having a famous brass quintet from the German speaking part of Italy come to my school in Indonesia about 11 years ago. They didn't ask for much--but we had to pay the airfare.