Bellyman the stage presence, the speaking, poking a little fun, engaging with the audience directly
I actually think this was a big thing that really me helped me this time. Iâm a uni teacher (non-music) in my day job and I also give tons of research presentations, so standing up and talking to big groups is something I do all the time. I think being able to do it this time, to talk to everyone before I started, intro my pieces and say something about them, really helped me.
This retirement center concert also made me realize what I donât want to do ever again: the âcommunity music school modelâ where itâs a bunch of kids and their parents, and then me (the odd one out as a full-on grown up). The last two times Iâve played in a recital like that, itâs been awful. They put me late in the program (because my pieces are more advanced than the kids), so I si there and get progressively more nervous. Youâre not allowed to introduce your own pieces and everything feels very stiff and rigid, the kids donât care about the music played by other performers, and the parents only wants to hear their kid play. Which is fine, you canât blame them. But itâs not fun for the performer.
At the retirement center, I went out into the hall just before they opened the doors and started letting people. There was a woman sitting near the door, all dressed up with pearls. She looked like she was maybe 90 years old. I smiled at her and she said âare you going to play for us?â And I said yes, and I showed her where I was on the program and we chatted a bit and she thanked me for coming. Then I said hello to a few other people there. So I felt like I connected with them. And they all wanted to be there, they were so happy to hear some live music. And after the concert, several people came up to me to thank me and said they enjoyed the pieces I played.
That just made the whole thing very different, and much more like sharing music, compared to the community music recital, which was like a homework assignment no one else wanted to do.