Speed to market: how fast to get a gig?

Musicians who can sightread, improvise, or have memorised works they can readily perform don’t need a lead time to prepare for a concert performance.  Yet concert engagements don’t happen overnight. There is a certain lead time to book a concert and a lead time to get the audience.

I interviewed a classical music aficionado last Friday about his house concert series as material to add to my ongoing research on house concerts and salon concerts. Towards the end of our phone conversation, I mentioned that classical guitarist Robert Bekkers was going to be in town. Would he care to organise a concert in his home?

His first reaction was very positive. Yes! He would love to. When I told him the date, he withdrew and said he could not manage to organise his schedule and home to make it happen. He would prefer a month to 6 weeks notice.

Indeed, if you have to turn your home into a concert venue, you do need time to clear up and clean up. If you have a full-time job, you do need to make space to organise a concert event in your free time.

Undeterred, I googled to find other candidates.

That Friday 11th February 2011, I e-mailed a non-profit organisation that had put on such intimate classical music concerts for raising funds for the cause they’re championing.

Before I went to bed, I noticed I had received an e-mail reply.

The very next morning, I was woken up by a call from the lady in charge. We spoke for over 40 minutes about the possibilities of collaborating. I told her that I was the gateway to some of the best musicians on the planet.

On Sunday, I sent her links and material she could use to convince the new board members about doing a concert.

On Monday, she had her board meeting.

On Tuesday, she e-mailed me to ask if the Mr Bekkers was available the following Wednesday to give a concert. She would get her real estate advisory council to find a suitable location.

On Wednesday, I replied that indeed he was available and happy to give a concert.

In less than 12 hours, she and the chairman of her real estate advisory council had not only found a venue but also managed to get half the tickets sold.

How’s that for speed to market? If everything is in place, a gig can happen overnight.

Robert Bekkers gives a solo concert in Phoenix, Arizona on Wednesday 23rd February 2011 at 7 pm.

Count down to guitar solo concert tour

Five hours before Dutch guitarist Robert Bekkers boards the airplane for his trans-Pacific and coast-to-coast red-eye (overnight) flight from Maui to Boston, he finishes a hearty meal at the cafeteria of Maui College famous for its award-winning Culinary Academy. Every Monday to Thursday between 11 am and 1 pm, Paina Meals at $5 a plate are served. Today he chose the more expensive $7.90 swordfish with purple potato as a send-off meal. He knows that there will be NO complimentary meals served on Hawaiian Airlines and Delta Airlines for the long journey.

Guitarist Robert Bekkers at Maui College in Hawaii

An e-mail from the concert host in Wells, Maine brings a reality check:

“As the day draws near, I’m praying for NO MORE SNOW! We’ve had so much with more expected, and I’m concerned about parking. There is just no more room to push the mountains of snow that have accumulated around the driveway.”

That concert of “Guitar meets Piano” will take place on Sunday 13th February, a day of travel for Robert Bekkers on the Boston T-line and the Amtrak. Before then, he will have given two house concerts in Boston. Valentine’s Day on Monday 14th February will be another day of travel, by Amtrak from Wells, Maine to Boston and then the Peter Pan coach to Manhattan.

What he brings to these concert hosts and their guests are three new CDs he produced in Maui: a solo guitar album and two live recordings of his Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo concerts in Maui and at Duke University. He hopes and expects the sale of these CDs to support this 3 week tour of Boston, Wells, Pelham, Houston, and Phoenix.

Concert before a private viewing in Wailuku

There is a grassroots movement of turning one’s home into an art gallery and concert hall. I sincerely believe it. Live music is not confined to grandiose concert halls for 2,000 people. Similarly art, especially contemporary art, that is works of living artists, is not destined for museums, waiting to be curated and valued.

Living composers and artists are creating new works every day.

There are not enough concert halls to hear their works or museums to view their works.

Hospitals, schools, hotels, and restaurants have unleashed their walls for art exhibitions. Similarly concerts are being staged in alternative locations. Venues can serve more than one purpose.

What about one’s home? A home is your castle. Home is where the heart is. It’s the last place of safety and tranquility. Why should you turn it into a concert hall or art gallery? Because you turn a concert and an art exhibition into a very special event —- one with a personal touch that is unique only to you, the host.

Last evening, we hosted a small intimate guitar solo concert in our one bedroom apartment in Maui. Dutch guitarist Robert Bekkers gave a half-hour performance of four pieces he will play in Boston next month. We were privileged to sit so close to hear this private performance.

Robert Bekkers guitarist in private house concert in Wailuku. Photo: Tommy Nahulu

After dinner, Maui-based artist Frances Ku revealed her latest work — yet untitled piece in watercolour.  I had asked her to paint one for our piano guitar duo for years. We are always looking for new original artwork or photographs for our concert invitations, posters, publicity, and CDs.

“Wow!” was the unanimous and simultaneous reaction. She had neither signed or framed it yet — literally hot off the press, still drying.

Frances Ku with latest work: piano and guitar in watercolour. Photo: Tommy Nahulu

Could we have invited more people to this private event? Yes and No.

We wanted to. But we did not have enough chairs, wine glasses, and plates.

Next time, we should just ask our guests to bring their own.

It goes to show that a concert and/or an art exhibition can take place whenever there is a will to make it happen. Even in one bedroom apartments — as we have experienced in Amsterdam and now, Maui!

Frances Ku, artist and new painting. Photo: Brian Moto

Note: Robert took photos of this painting and immediately made a CD cover for the new CD Live at Duke 2010, pictured below.

Bekkers Piano Guitar Duk Live at Duke 2010 CD album

Rob Judkins art for Rob Bekkers music

“Where shall I send your painting?” asked Georgia-based artist Rob Judkins.

Before I answer that question, let me share with you what we have done with images of that maginificent acrylic painting of piano and guitar — a painting which we have yet to see and touch in real life. We musicians are in Maui, 5 hour time zones from Georgia and an overnight flight away. I have not seen Rob Judkins since high school. I desperately want to see the painting, but I also want to display it in a location where I can show it to others. In fact, I want to show this 32″x48″ painting wherever I go, not just in Maui, but also San Francisco, London, Amsterdam, and Utrecht. Can I take the painting on the road like the way I can with our music?

Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo Live in Makawao CD label

The stack of 99 CDs sit on the shelf. The first person to buy this CD was the host of a house concert in upper Kula. Who will be the lucky 2nd, 3rd, etc?

We will, of course, give copies to the living composers whose works we played in the Makawao Union Church concert in Maui in December 2007: Allan Segall in Amsterdam, Henk Alkema in Utrecht, Erik Otte in Haarlem, and Lan-Chee Lam in Toronto. We will send copies to the artist Rob Judkins in Columbus, Georgia.

We will post 5 copies to CDBABY where the physical album will be sold for $39 each — limited edition. We want to encourage people to come to our concerts or, better, organise concerts for us. At these live concerts, we will sell them for $20 to $25 each. Bulk orders get a discount.

We will bring them to the Maui Rotary Club this coming Thursday 3rd February 2011 when Robert Bekkers gives a solo concert at their weekly luncheon.

Images of Rob Judkins’ acryllic painting were also used in the publicity for the forthcoming house concert in Wells, Maine.

Guitar meets piano at Meetinghouse concert in Wells, Maine

Download the one page colour PDF of the above poster here. How wonderful to have original artwork to promote music both recorded and live!

Preparing for Maine in Maui: making 3 CDs for concert tour

Dutch classical guitarist Robert Bekkers is preparing three new CDs for his upcoming solo concert tour of Boston, Wells (Maine), Pelham (New York), Houston, and Phoenix. The first two are live recordings of the Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo in concert in Maui (2007) and Durham, North Carolina (2010). The third is a new solo CD still being recorded from the bedroom of the apartment below.

Combining breakfast with making the artwork for the 2nd CD in Maui

Before the sun appears above the slopes of the volcano Haleakala, he is already awake, preparing coffee and breakfast. He usually reads his music history book while it is still cool in the apartment.

On Saturday 29th January 2011, he turns on his laptop and imports the new photos from the previous evening –  a private viewing of a newly commissioned painting Maui-based artist Frances Ku. He crops and re-sizes the image of the unframed watercolor of guitar and piano.

All preparations for this second CD, the live recording of his duo’s concert at Duke University on 2nd November 2010, have been made, except for the artwork.

The 10 tracks from the Duke CD have been uploaded onto CDBABY. The CD itself is being copied in upper Kula, in a house on the path to the crater of Haleakala. All he has to do now is to make the CD cover and send it to the CD presser and at the same time upload the album artwork onto CDBABY.

Meanwhile he is practising his solo repertoire to finish the third CD which contains the one-hour programme he will play on his solo concert tour. After the recording, he will listen to each track, edit, and master them to create a CD.

For the first CD, Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo LIVE in Makawao, he used a photo of the new painting “Piano and guitar in acryllic” by Georgia-based artist Rob Judkins. He extracted pieces of the photo image for the poster for the house concert in Maine. He also cropped part of Judkins’ painting for the CD label, which appears on the physical CD itself.

In the week that remains on Maui, he will be racing against time to finish recording his solo album, finish the artwork for the second CD, and assemble the envelopes (CD sleeves) for the first CD.

Next blog posts: CDs, music, collaboration with artists and composers.

The road to Meetinghouse Concerts: how to launch a new concert series

About a year ago, a cellist friend of mine asked me how to find house concerts to play in. Other than the ones I’ve already played in, have attended as a guest, or have organised and produced, I had not thought about how to find homes which have never had concerts before. I suppose one would have to find such dwellings, contact the owners, and suggest “won’t it be a great idea to have a concert at your house.”

Musicians who have played in house concerts know that the guests are some of the most attentive audiences around. In smaller spaces, you can’t help but sit and absorb the music. There is no distraction of too many people or the ego of those who go to concerts just to be seen. The people who go to house concerts know the etiquette. They appreciate being told and invited, for there is usually not the size or the space for wider publicity.

The following story tells of a new house concert series in the making.

My American friend in Amsterdam and I caught up after the New Year on skype. The next day, she e-mailed to suggest that I look up a certain pianist, named Greg Hall, in Maine who is a long-time friend of her artist husband. Out of curiosity, I checked out his website and shot him an e-mail introducing myself and my goals of finding new performance opportunities for musicians.

An enthusiastic reply prompted me to call him. The phone conversation lasted well over an hour. We got to know each other. I got guitarist Robert Bekkers to listen to the pianist’s online recordings and read his approach to improvisation.

We all agreed that we as musicians want more opportunities to perform and that house concerts are a great way to do that. He has played twice in a house with a beautiful grand piano and wonderful acoustics. The owner is a gracious hostess who, he was sure, would be open to using it for another house concert, if only we could make audience development effortless. He offered to discuss this with the owner.

What followed soon after his e-mail introduction was a call to the owner, Lynne, who shared her dreams for this beautiful house that was once a place of music. We talked about the location of Wells, Maine for concerts, how to get people to come to concerts, publicity, and what a house concert series would do for the community. I shared positive experiences of sold-out house concerts in a rural community in Connecticut and the 14-year track record for full-house outdoor garden concerts of an amateur flute player in Texas. Our lengthy conversation led to follow-up emails and an agreement to work together on making a concert happen for the Maine-based pianist and the Dutch guitarist.

Before long, the pianist Greg Hall, who is also an IT expert, produced a google spreadsheet of the tasks, responsibilities, and progress for this concert. We set up a 3-way skype conversation on Sunday, with him in Maine and us in Maui. We had exactly 3 weeks to agree on the details, allocate the tasks, arrange the publicity, send out invitations, and make this concert of Sunday 13th February 2011 happen.

Meetinghouse Concert Series with Steinway Grand

The house itself is located on Meetinghouse Road in Wells, Maine. Thus it was tempting to create a concert series called “Meetinghouse Concerts” or “Meetinghouse Concert Series”  somewhat like the way we made double use of the word “house” in “Monument House Concert Series” in Utrecht, Netherlands.

Next concert: Sunday 13 February 2011 at 7 pm GUITAR MEETS PIANO: from Maui to Maine

From Maui to Maine: guitar meets piano

An extraordinary event is set to happen on Sunday 13th February 2011 at 7 pm in Wells, Maine.

Classical guitarist Robert Bekkers will travel from the sunny tropical island of Maui in Hawaii, crossing an ocean and most of the North American continent to the snow-covered town of Wells, Maine. There, he will give a concert with a pianist he has yet to meet — Greg Hall.

Pianist Greg Hall, also known as Gregory Hall, is a composer, pianist, and improviser. He gives regular weekly live concerts in “Second Life” where he is known as Tip Corbett. Below is his avatar.

Pianist Greg Hall, a.k.a. Tip Corbett in "Second Life"

On Sunday 13th February 2011, Greg Hall will appear in real life as himself.

Where is Wells, Maine? Robert Bekkers will take the 1.5 hour train ride from Boston going north. It will be an adventure in New England, now covered with snow.

Snow-covered garden of the house at Meetinghouse Road, Wells, Maine

What a change in weather it will be for Robert Bekkers who has been exploring Maui since Thanksgiving Day 2010 when he ended his coast-to-coast concert tour of mainland USA.

View of Maui from a 4-hour hike

Together, Greg Hall and Robert Bekkers will revive that 19th century tradition of cozy house concerts when musicians played music they wrote (compositions) or music not yet written (improvisation). Back then, musicians were both performers and composers.

Bekkers has arranged a number of pieces for piano and guitar, performed and recorded but not yet published though highly sought-after. Hall’s repertoire can be heard online in “Second Life” as well as from his website.

They will play two sets solo — and join the two sets with duo improvisation and sightreading. It is probably the first of its kind.

Bekkers’ solos will be extracted from his “Cappricho” programme (2 page PDF): virtuosic works of Villa-Lobos, Brrios-Mangore, Brouwer, Bach, Walton, Martin, and Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

Both Hall and Bekkers will be signing their solo and duo CDs during the intermission and after the concert when guests are encouraged to stay and chat. Bekkers is currently producing CDs of live recordings of two concerts of his own piano guitar duo.

For more information, visit Gregory Hall concert announcements, Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo concert agenda, or download the one-page PDF.

GUITAR MEETS PIANO

Greg Hall, piano and Robert Bekkers, guitar

Sunday 13 February 2011
Doors open 6:30 pm for 7 pm concert
Suggested donation $10 at the door
Guests are welcome to bring their own drinks to share (BYOB)

Reservations requested
Free parking
169 Meetinghouse Road, Wells, Maine
Meetinghouse Concert Series

A percentage of the proceeds will go towards the selected charities of the late owners of this house: Animal Welfare Society of West Kennebunk and Maine Children’s Cancer Program, in memory of Dennis and Nella Hudon.

Steinway grand piano at Meetinghouse Concerts

Live recording for radio Houston

What a surprise to discover  Houston Public Radio KUHF chose us for their final programme of the Front Row in 2010! We had pre-recorded it on Friday 12th November 2010, a busy day that began at 6:30 am with interview at another Houston radio station, followed by a free public concert at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The nearly one hour programme is on the KUHF webpage. “Husband-and-wife musicians, guitarist Robert Bekkers and pianist Anne Ku treat us to a salon concert from the Geary Performance Studio! Based in The Netherlands, …” more

Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo in Warmond, Netherlands Photo: Humphrey Daniels

The program previews our forthcoming CD Winter — which follows our first CD Summer! The producer Bob Stevenson asked us to play the first and last (skipping the slow second) movement of Vivaldi’s Winter from his Four Seasons. We gave this programme during 2010 in the Netherlands and on our 5-week USA tour.

Included on this show was a short guitar solo cadenza of the Dutch national anthem which Robert invented for the lengthy Grand Potpourri National. The other original work for piano and guitar was the second half of Amsterdam-based composer Gijs van Dijk’s “Abstract and Dance.” Robert Bekkers had arranged Handel’s Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (first piece on the KUHF programme and played in its entirety). Another arranged piece for our duo was Fritz Kreisler’s version of Manuel de Falla’s Spanish Dance from La Vida Breve which we both adapted for piano and guitar (also the entire piece).

Order of works on the Front Row Program:

first part: (mp3)

• Arrival of the Queen of Sheba Handel, arr. Bekkers
• Spanish Dance from La Vida Breve, de Falla, arr. Kreisler, Bekkers, Ku

second part: (mp3)

• Winter, Vivaldi, arr. Bekkers (1st and 3rd movement only)

third part: (mp3)

• Bekkers solo cadenza and extract from Grand Potpourri National by Hummel and Giuliani
• Dance from “Abstract and Dance” by Gijs van Dijk

What’s interesting about this recording session was that we were playing to an invisible and unknown audience that would listen in the future — an unknown date in the future on which it would be broadcasted and an unknown date on which people would listen online. There was no applause in the recording studio of the radio station. You could say we had only two people in the audience in the studio: the producer Bob Stevenson interviewing us, and sound engineer Todd Hulslander on the other side of the glass window.

Some corrections: I didn’t graduate from Utrecht University but Utrecht Conservatory in 2008, two completely different institutions both located in Utrecht, Netherlands. Robert mentioned he had to bring down “Winter” one whole note — what he meant was whole tone — a Dutchism.

The radio programmers chose a photo of us taken by the Dutch photographer Humphrey Daniels in a monastic church in Warmond, Netherlands where we had recorded a concert towards the end of 2008. One of those pieces (recorded by Dutch sound engineer Boy Griffioen) found its way to our first CD Summer — Romance from Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nacht Musik, arranged for our duo by Robert Bekkers.

Bekkers Piano Guitar Duo at Utrecht Conservatory K108 Photo: Olaf Hornes

We noticed a huge difference between our second recording at KUHF in 2010 and the first in 2007! The first live recording and interview in December 2007 was also the first time Robert and I had ever appeared on radio. We thought we would pre-record it and thus arrived an hour early. Little did we know that it was going to be a LIVE broadcast! We were less talkative and less knowledgeable about being interviewed in 2007.

Gitaar = guitar (in Dutch)

This morning, while scanning my e-mails as usual, I almost deleted an unknown sender with the subject line “Old looks.” Out of curiosity, I opened it and read a seasons’ greetings in the familiar multi-lingual text that is commonly found in the Netherlands:

Beste mensen,

Wat ik nu toch vond.

Met vriendelijke groet/best regards/bien à vous/mit freundlichen Grüßen/Sinceramente,

Jan Paul Barentsen
Bizz’Co

Scrolling down further, I saw a photo of a young man with flying blonde hair playing electric guitar. Something about him made me stop and stare. He was around 18 or 19 years of age. He looked familiar. Apparently he sold his moped to buy this instrument.

Young man playing electric guitar

I would have liked to meet the young guitarist. By the time I finally met him, his hair was more dirty blonde than blonde. He sold the Telecaster electric guitar long ago.

Thank you, Jan Paul, for this photo of the young Robert. What a nice Christmas gift! Hope to meet you someday.

Lead times and lag times

When I returned from shopping this afternoon, I asked Robert how it felt to make cold calls using his new name Bob.

“I haven’t started yet. I still use Robert.”

“Why not? I wrote a whole blog about you. Don’t you like BOB?” I felt slightly betrayed that he had backed out.

“I guess I’m just not ready for it. I still think of myself as Robert, not Bob.”

“But I thought you liked Bob!  There’s no mistake when you say Bob — you mean Bob.” I pleaded and reasoned. It’s important for cold call recipients to grasp his name the first time. They can’t question, “What? Wobert? You mean Rwobuht? Could you repeat that? Are you Danish?”

After dinner, as we sat on the balcony of our apartment, we watched the full moon resist the clouds after being eclipsed by the earth yesterday. We could not imagine being more relaxed anywhere else on earth at that moment. It’s taken us 2 months of traveling out of suitcases and staying in other people’s homes to get here.

Robert Bekkers launches solo guitar concert tour

There is a lag time to implementing your decisions. Yesterday, Robert decided to call himself Bob. Obviously one day was not enough to get used to it and do it.

There is a lead time to getting something started. Today, he received confirmation to be in Boston in early February 2011. He needs all the time between now and then to prepare for the visit and plan a solo guitar concert tour to last him until St Patrick’s Day. There are people to contact, concerts to arrange, flights to book, …. a deja vu of what we did for our 5 weeks of concert touring, except this time he will be doing it alone.

What can we learn from our 40-day concert tour from Boston to Sacramento in October and November? I will attempt to deconstruct and identify what worked and what didn’t in the forthcoming blog posts. In other words, how to plan a concert tour as classical musicians.