AETHERPHON, global theremin family

No problem.

Get your venue sorted first - decent locations are rarer than rocking  
horse shit and get booked up early. I tried half a dozen places  
before hitting on a local boarding music school. Perfect! Bed and  
board on location, a good auditorium and they didn't know what they  
were worth so the price was good. For next year's event we are going  
to a university. They're good too.

The downside is the school office was a couple of dear old ladies  
struggling with an over-bureaucratised system, so things flowed like  
mud. I had a secret weapon - Mrs Charlton is something of a business  
wizard and kept them on their toes.

This is an important point - once money is involved you are in  
business, so you gotta be business-like and professional. My prime  
directive was not to run the risk of losing money. This means it is  
going to take time. Get your venue booked well ahead and pay them as  
late as possible so that you can collect from attendees first.

I was very fortunate here that someone who prefers to remain  
anonymous donated a wonderful raffle prize as an incentive for people  
to book early. For the 2011 event the "pay early" incentive (a  
moogerfooger of your choice!) is being donated by Moog's UK  
distributors. Bless them.

Activities. Here's a couple of videos for you to watch...

http://www.youtube.com/user/GordonCharlton#grid/user/FE3CD5C10AC17A5F

Saturday morning we had talks about theremins and other hardware  
related subjects. In the afternoon Lydia ran a masterclass. This was  
the easiest part. I just told her "Saturday afternoon is yours. You  
know better what to do than I do." She brought Barbara, Carolina and  
Charlie on board and they did their thing.

Here is another key point. You make your own luck. Recognise  
opportunities when they walk up and punch you in the face. I emailed  
Lydia on spec, knowing there was no possibility of my paying for her  
to come from Russia and was completely surprised when she responded  
that she was currently living a couple of hours drive away from me!  
So yeah, email people - the worst they can say is no. Also - when  
people say they are coming, do your homework - research them on  
google - I found a lot of my speakers and performers like that - they  
said they wanted to attend and I emailed them back to say "great -  
would you like to talk about these amazing optical theremins you're  
making", or, "do you thing you could bring Musaire's RCA with you"  
and they said "I'd love to!"

Sunday morning we rehearsed for the ensemble performance in the  
afternoon while JD - the other key element of the team - our sound  
man - rigged up the mixing desk and amps etc that he brought with him  
and got our classical performers happy with the arrangements. And  
then on Sunday afternoon an audience of about 80 turned up - friends  
and family of attendees mostly, and some local curiosity seekers - I  
had spent a few days putting posters in shops within a 20 mile radius  
and we entertained them for three hours. 1 hour of diverse groups, 1  
hour of classical from Lydia and her gang, and one hour of ensemble -  
we surrounded the audience with about 20 theremins and basically had  
a load of fun!

Things we're doing differently next year - organised evening events.  
That was a bit of a slack time. Third key point. Keep the attendees  
busy and organised. They did not mind being "herded" from one room to  
the next and I scheduled time for them to socialise and network.  
That's a very important part of an event. Communal dining is great  
for that!

For more about 2011 see here:

http://www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=4585

So you need a venue, speakers/performers and attendees. Finding  
attendees means publicity - and tons of it. You have Spellbound -  
that's a great start. Then there are forums, mailing lists, social  
networking sites, twitter, blogs etc etc etc. The US is a great big  
place and the majority of your potential audience aren't the few who  
are part of the online thereminist community. You want to reach  
beyond that. This is key point number five. Make a big noise. And  
don't skimp on direct marketing. Email people you would like to see  
there and invite them personally...

  Does that help?

Gordon

PS. Things to avoid - endless hours of people being coached by  
experts. There is only so much painfully pitchy theremin a person can  
stand. My personal limit for beginners playing classical is about  
five nanoseconds. (Which I why I don't play classical - I'd have to  
listen to myself practising!) Instead let your performers who want to  
teach make their own private arrangements for tuition in a side room  
as a way of recouping some of their expenses. Also don't forget to  
run a merchandise table for them.


On 24 Sep 2010, at 18:48, David V wrote:

>
> Ah, but Gordon, you've done this before. :-)
>
> What I would ask of you is to write me up an accounting of how you
> planned the Hands Off festivals. What planning was required? What
> activities did you schedule? What setup was required? How did you get
> the venue? Etc. You can probably help me more than most people.
>
> David V
>
> On 9/21/2010 2:44 PM, Gordon Charlton wrote:
> > Sounds good to me.
> >
> > Not sure what I can offer, being 4000 miles and an ocean away, but
> > you have my support.
> >
> > Gordon
> >
> >
> > On 21 Sep 2010, at 17:10, kkissinger@... wrote:
> >
> >> Hi David,
> >>
> >> Great idea. Will be interested in helping with this.
> >>
> >> Note that I co-sponser the Kansas City Regional Electro-music
> >> festival, which is scheduled for July 22, 23, and 24 2010. As  
> long as
> >> a theremin festival does not conflict with those dates, I would be
> >> able to help with this.
> >>
> >> All the best!
> >>
> >> -- Kevin
> >>
> >> Quoting David V<porphyrous@...>:
> >>
> >>> Hello all,
> >>>
> >>> I'm sending this message to all of my subscribers on
> >> spellboundradio and
> >>> aetherphon (I've you're on one but not the other, e-mail me and
> >> I'll set
> >>> you up), plus Levnet and my Facebook and Twitter resources as
> >> well. The
> >>> idea is that I establish a critical mass of interest and support
> >> so that
> >>> it doesn't just become yet another flight of fancy that I end up
> >>> forgetting about. :-)
> >>>
> >>> For a couple of years now, I've been inspired by the theremin
> >> festivals
> >>> put on by Moog, as well as Gordon's annual event in the UK, and  
> even
> >>> Coralie's Swiss event. Last year, Olivia observed that I was  
> perhaps
> >>> uniquely positioned to pursue a theremin festival, and I've been
> >>> pondering the idea for awhile now. Late last year, I arranged  
> lunch
> >>> with Dr. Fred Willman, coordinator of Music Education at the
> >> University
> >>> of Missouri at St. Louis, who turns out to be the only member of
> >> UMSL's
> >>> music faculty who owns and plays a theremin! Total stupid luck, I
> >> only
> >>> picked him to contact because of his position at the school. So
> >> he had
> >>> some interest, but without more momentum, things didn't go
> >> anywhere last
> >>> year. I'm hoping that we can get something rolling so that in two
> >>> years, Labor Day weekend of 2012 (assuming the world hasn't  
> ended by
> >>> then ;-) maybe we can get something rolling.
> >>>
> >>> I struck upon the idea of UMSL as a host organization because
> >> they would
> >>> have the facilities to host such an event, would be positioned to
> >>> scrounge for money to fund it, has a world class performing venue
> >> (the
> >>> Touhill Arts Center, home of the Arianna String Quartet), has a
> >> radio
> >>> station for the inevitable simulcasting, has a movie theatre for
> >> showing
> >>> theremin movies, plus it's on the light rail line from the  
> airport.
> >>>
> >>> If you have experience organizing festivals, I would like to hear
> >> from
> >>> you. I would like to write up an organizational plan by the end
> >> of the
> >>> year and at least sketch an outline of the event. If you think you
> >>> might be interested in attending a festival in St. Louis, please
> >> drop me
> >>> a quick note about that too. If you have ideas about what you  
> think
> >>> you'd like to see and hear at such a festival, I'm open to your
> >> ideas.
> >>> Thanks for your time, and I hope to get feedback from you!
> >>>
> >>> David V
> >>> Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> -----
> >>> DAVID V -- synthetic music for humans
> >>> -----
> >>> Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin
> >>> Sunday 10PM-12AM http://spellbound.purplenote.com
> >>> FamilyWii -- For Gaming Families and Families of Gamers
> >>> Visit http://www.familywii.org for reviews and info
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> AETHERPHON, the global thereminist community
> >>>
> >>> To contact the moderator, e-mail porphyrous@...
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Yahoo! Groups Links
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------
> >
> > AETHERPHON, the global thereminist community
> >
> > To contact the moderator, e-mail porphyrous@...
> >
> >
> > Yahoo! Groups Links
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> -- 
> -----
> DAVID V -- synthetic music for humans
> -----
> Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin
> Sunday 10PM-12AM http://spellbound.purplenote.com
> FamilyWii -- For Gaming Families and Families of Gamers
> Visit http://www.familywii.org for reviews and info
>
> 
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