After sending out letters to three nursing homes in the Falmouth Area I got two call backs on Tuesday the 4th of August. Atria Healthcare asked me to come in the next day to do a short 45 minute concert for their resident's ice cream social. Happily I agreed. When I got to Atria I met with Karen, the Activities co-ordinator for Atria, and she gave me a quick run down of where I would be performing and what time I should start. I set up my speakers and Ipod where she wanted me to, but the system wasn't turning on. Frantically I scrambled to two other outlets, but the system still wouldn't turn on. After a little frustration I talked to Karen. She was supportive and called the home's technician in. He was also baffled as to what the problem was since all three of the outlets I used were working. Then we realized that the power chord of my system was broken even though it had worked perfectly the night before. I informed Karen of this and we decided to scrap this concert, but schedule another once I got a new power chord. Karen told me to introduce myself to the residents and tell them a little about myself. As I did this they seemed genuinely happy that even though I didn't do anything that I eventually I was going to perform for them. They were also very supportive of me and thanked me fore taking the time to try and perform for them.
The next day I had a meeting with Christine Davidson, The activities director for Heritage at Falmouth. During the meeting I reiterated to her what I was planning to do and how I was going to accomplish it. She seemed very gung-ho about it, and asked when would I be able to start the concerts. I told her my schedule and explained that I was waiting on a new power chord that I had ordered the night before. She then gave me her business card and told me to send her an email when i got the chord. She also asked for me to send a short bio of myself so that she could advertise the concerts to the residents. That night I put together the bio and sent it to her. Both of these activities were valuable to me because I learned that sometimes checking your equipment is not a fool-proof way to know that it will work on the day of you performance. I also learned that sometimes you need to make sure you have you credentials all ready to present.
Friday, August 7, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Eric,
ReplyDeleteHave you performed any concerts since this posting. If so, please write about the experience. Keep up the good work.