Do your artists offer livestream concerts, workshops, and other events available for performing arts presenters, churches, house concert presenters, and other organizations?
YES! While stay-at-home orders are in place, and audiences are not coming out for public gatherings, some of our artists have been creating successful online events that can still bring people together virtually. These artists have always drawn together communities through their concerts, workshops, camps, classes, and retreats.
Interactive and Collaborative Concerts and workshops:
All the artists listed below have upgraded their audio and video equipment for streaming concerts and workshops and have adapted their performing styles for this new medium.
Most of the concerts that we are booking are following one of these two models:
In either case, we suggest having someone from your organization act as host, to introduce the Artist. The host can also moderate a Q & A or discussion with the Artist, either halfway through the concert or at the end. Most streaming platforms include a chat function, so audiences can ask questions or make song requests.
Workshops are best done via an interactive platform like Zoom. Please call for more specific ideas.
Artists available for online concerts, workshops, and retreats:
Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas cutting-edge fiddle and cello explorations of Scottish and global music
• Concerts (which can be themed or customized to a specific audience)
• Master classes and workshops for performers of all ages, levels, and instruments, with an emphasis on the linguistic nature and rhythmic drive of traditional music.
Alasdair Fraser: solo violin recital—a celebration of centuries of Scottish fiddle
John McCutcheon folk music's Renaissance man — master instrumentalist, powerful singer-songwriter, storyteller, activist, and author
• Concerts (which can be themed or customized to a specific audience)
• Workshops on songwriting (all levels); Writing on Purpose; Culture & Community
Carrie Newcomer conversational, introspective songwriting that celebrates and savors the ordinary, yet sacred, moments of our lives
• Concerts (which can be themed or customized to a specific audience)
• variety of workshops and mini-retreats exploring the intersection of creativity and spirituality
David Wilcox hope & bliss, brilliant guitar, and stirring vocals by a master songwriter
• Concerts (which can be themed or customized to a specific audience)
• Workshops on Songwriting; From Seedling to Fruition; Running the Long Road; Listening as a Leadership Skill
Jay Ungar & Molly Mason the heart and soul of American roots music
• Concerts
• Workshops for fiddle (numerous styles), guitar, piano, accompaniment, arrangement, much more.
Nic Gareiss jubilant young master of percussive dance and song
• Solo performances
– Solo concert overview
– Solo Square Dance
– Scraping for Peggy
• Workshops on Appalachian Flatfooting & Clogging; Dance the Tune; Step Dance Technique & Improvisation
Elias Alexander (of Soulsha)
• Solo concert featuring a variety of traditional and original music from the deep well of Scottish tradition
Some of these artists can work together in co-bill or in-the-round concerts.
Interactive and Collaborative Concerts and workshops:
All the artists listed below have upgraded their audio and video equipment for streaming concerts and workshops and have adapted their performing styles for this new medium.
Most of the concerts that we are booking are following one of these two models:
- The Presenter books the artist to perform either a livestream or pre-recorded concert, for which the Presenter either sells tickets or provides to your audience free of charge. An artist fee can vary and can be either a flat guarantee (or some type of guarantee) plus percentage arrangement. Given all of today’s uncertainties, we are trying to be flexible.
- We are self-producing many ticketed concerts with our artists, using the Mandolin livestream platform, for which we involve a select group of presenters that all help to sell tickets and earn a percentage of the tickets that they sell through a dedicated ticketing page provided by Mandolin. Please ask if you are interested in learning more. These are proving to be successful and involve little or no risk on the Presenter’s part.
In either case, we suggest having someone from your organization act as host, to introduce the Artist. The host can also moderate a Q & A or discussion with the Artist, either halfway through the concert or at the end. Most streaming platforms include a chat function, so audiences can ask questions or make song requests.
Workshops are best done via an interactive platform like Zoom. Please call for more specific ideas.
Artists available for online concerts, workshops, and retreats:
Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas cutting-edge fiddle and cello explorations of Scottish and global music
• Concerts (which can be themed or customized to a specific audience)
• Master classes and workshops for performers of all ages, levels, and instruments, with an emphasis on the linguistic nature and rhythmic drive of traditional music.
Alasdair Fraser: solo violin recital—a celebration of centuries of Scottish fiddle
John McCutcheon folk music's Renaissance man — master instrumentalist, powerful singer-songwriter, storyteller, activist, and author
• Concerts (which can be themed or customized to a specific audience)
• Workshops on songwriting (all levels); Writing on Purpose; Culture & Community
Carrie Newcomer conversational, introspective songwriting that celebrates and savors the ordinary, yet sacred, moments of our lives
• Concerts (which can be themed or customized to a specific audience)
• variety of workshops and mini-retreats exploring the intersection of creativity and spirituality
David Wilcox hope & bliss, brilliant guitar, and stirring vocals by a master songwriter
• Concerts (which can be themed or customized to a specific audience)
• Workshops on Songwriting; From Seedling to Fruition; Running the Long Road; Listening as a Leadership Skill
Jay Ungar & Molly Mason the heart and soul of American roots music
• Concerts
• Workshops for fiddle (numerous styles), guitar, piano, accompaniment, arrangement, much more.
Nic Gareiss jubilant young master of percussive dance and song
• Solo performances
– Solo concert overview
– Solo Square Dance
– Scraping for Peggy
• Workshops on Appalachian Flatfooting & Clogging; Dance the Tune; Step Dance Technique & Improvisation
Elias Alexander (of Soulsha)
• Solo concert featuring a variety of traditional and original music from the deep well of Scottish tradition
Some of these artists can work together in co-bill or in-the-round concerts.
What is the criteria for adding artists to our roster?
- Artistic excellence: the artist has achieved the highest level of artistry within their genre, in terms of writing, vocal and instrumental skills, and performance
- Creativity and uniqueness: the artist is highly creative and has developed a unique and recognizable style of performance
- Accessibility: the artist's music has the potential to appeal to a wide enough audience the it will be profitable for the agency to represent him/her
- Business acumen: the artist has the skills and understanding to guide their own career successfully, whether self-managed or by taking on a good management team and providing proper direction
- Agency passion: the agency needs to love the work of the artist to the point that they can enthusiastically spread the word about this artist's work, and remain enthusiastic in the face of temporary setbacks
How does one become an opener for one of our artists?
Unfortunately this isn't something that we can generally do for a musician interested in doing an opening set. Our primary responsibility is to take care of the artists that we already represent, so we try to focus our time on that. You're welcome to contact the presenting organization/venue, and if they turn out to be interested in having you open a show for one of our artists, they'll check with us for approval. That's about all the time we can devote to this. Keep in mind that the vast majority of our artists' shows don't have openers.
On the odd occasion that these shows do have openers, we're generally looking for two things:
On the odd occasion that these shows do have openers, we're generally looking for two things:
- A really good artistic match between the audience that we expect to draw and the music of the potential opener
- The opener needs to be able to help sell some tickets in that particular venue/market
If you really feel that you fit both criteria, then reach out to the presenting organization/venue, not to us. Thanks.
Why do you do this kind of work?
One of our artists has told us that he simply can't understand why a person would want any of these three jobs in the music business: 1) sound engineer, 2) road manager, and 3) booking agent. The more we think about it, it's tough for any of us who have a particular interest and skill set to understand how other people can do what they do all day. We also can't understand why everybody else doesn't find our particular worlds as fascinating as we do.
After so many years in this business, we get a lot of satisfaction from many parts of our work. The first and probably biggest part is all of the people with whom we interact every day. The people we talk with most often are the little family of artists that we represent. They are a bunch of visionary, brilliant, wacky, kind, and endlessly creative people. Getting to talk with them on a regular basis is like a combination of therapy and stand-up comedy. Some are more organized than others.
The next best thing is that nearly every time we book a concert, workshop, or any other kind of event, we know that something really cool is going to happen when the contract date comes around. Whether the fees are large or small, we can anticipate some of the things that will happen between audience and artist. One of the reasons that we choose to represent certain artists is that, in their own unique ways, they each inspire some sort of greatness out of each person in every audience. It's way beyond just booking entertainment (which to us sounds more like just selling a commodity) — we get to be a part of deeper experience for lots of people.
And did we mention the paperwork? Who doesn't love trying to work their way through a university performance contract that few normal humans can understand? Actually, it is fun to negotiate in good faith, and work out financial agreements that make sense and are fair to everyone involved. It's very satisfying to close a deal, write up and send out a contract, and send all of the confirmation information to the artists. In general there's a cyclic nature to this work that can feel like nothing is ever complete, so we have to revel in each small victory. Check … done … next!
After so many years in this business, we get a lot of satisfaction from many parts of our work. The first and probably biggest part is all of the people with whom we interact every day. The people we talk with most often are the little family of artists that we represent. They are a bunch of visionary, brilliant, wacky, kind, and endlessly creative people. Getting to talk with them on a regular basis is like a combination of therapy and stand-up comedy. Some are more organized than others.
The next best thing is that nearly every time we book a concert, workshop, or any other kind of event, we know that something really cool is going to happen when the contract date comes around. Whether the fees are large or small, we can anticipate some of the things that will happen between audience and artist. One of the reasons that we choose to represent certain artists is that, in their own unique ways, they each inspire some sort of greatness out of each person in every audience. It's way beyond just booking entertainment (which to us sounds more like just selling a commodity) — we get to be a part of deeper experience for lots of people.
And did we mention the paperwork? Who doesn't love trying to work their way through a university performance contract that few normal humans can understand? Actually, it is fun to negotiate in good faith, and work out financial agreements that make sense and are fair to everyone involved. It's very satisfying to close a deal, write up and send out a contract, and send all of the confirmation information to the artists. In general there's a cyclic nature to this work that can feel like nothing is ever complete, so we have to revel in each small victory. Check … done … next!