Letter to the Universe, from Brava Music

My talented friend, Gina Weathersby, took wonderful photographs of a couple of my friends and me a few weeks ago. I was planning to use them in a brochure, where I would also list some musical repertoire, prices, and our musician bios. I was going to hand over these brochures, along with a rather big check, to David's Bridal so that our chamber music ensemble, Brava Music, would become their "merchant partner". This means that the store would include the brochure in a goodie bag given to all customers who purchase a gown and/or bridesmaids dresses, and we would then wait, hoping to hear from some of these customers about providing music for their weddings.

At a brainstorming session after the photo shoot, I decided this was perhaps not the ideal way to inform brides - or their parents - about our ensemble's availibility to provide music for their event. So, today, that's one more check I still have in my checkbook, available to be used for a babysitter, piano or cello teacher, veterinarian, tree trimmer or chimney sweep.

Each of us - violinist, flutist, cellist - chose our favorite pose from the shoot and then Gina got to work processing the photographs. Today, we received the beautiful images by email....you can see mine right below. Here is the good news: I already have use for them that I did not have at the time of the photo shoot: they will be featured in the programs and promotional materials mailed out to promote a concert our piano trio has been hired to play at Ohio University. Our flute and string quartet also has a concert coming up, but the church we are perfoming in doesn't use artist photos in its program.

I do hope that our lovely new photos will be useful in helping us find more opportunities to perform. Strangely enough, though, it almost seems like just by having had the photos taken, by taking that step towards really putting ourselves out there, the universe has already responded. And not with a little wedding gig, either, although we still want those and hope to get them. We are booked for a real concert, in a subscription series, complete with programs, fliers and posters and a written legal contract that includes requirements and benefits. We will also receive more monetary compensation for giving this concert than we would charge for being somewhat overlooked at a wedding, where it is considered perfectly polite to talk to your neighbor while the musicians are playing. Plus, we will get applause, and maybe, if we do really well, even get to hear our name in the air: "Brava!"

I would like to say, now that I have discarded my expensive and possibly quite inefficient idea of "partnering" with David's Bridal, that I will still make the brochure and that I will then call and make appointments around town, distributing brochures to select church musical directors and wedding planners, but first, I'm afraid, I still have to purchase a new laptop on which to create said brochure. So, in the meantime, I am just going to put this out into the universe in other less costly, complicated ways. Hence the following letter, posted into the blogosphere:

Dear Universe,

Thank you for the two paying concert gigs we have coming up. We are currently working on programs including works by Beethoven, Boccherini, Brahms, Lidarti, Telemann, Hindemith, a Sephardic Jewish melody, and Bach. We are really excited and will work long and hard to meet everyone's expectations of us.

If anyone out there wants to manage a group of classical musicians in our quest to find more concert venues, please let me know! Because honestly, none of us want anything to the business of getting these jobs. We just want to plan the program, practice our parts, get together to rehearse, and then show up on time, looking as neat and tidy as we can, to do our thing to make a special day that much more magical with our music, whether that's in a concert hall, or a church, or out on a farm with little white lights strung in the tree branches.

With deep appreciation,

the Women of Brava Music