BFlinch83

Hello Ed,

My friend and I have recently started thinking of marketing ourselves as a trumpet/organ duo. We've been playing together for about eight years now and really enjoy doing so. As the years pass our musicianship and technique have improved greatly as has our repertoire. We have three full recitals on our schedule, but we'd like to do many more.

Do you have any ideas about marketing a trumpet/organ duo? Thus far we've contacted churches that we know, telling them that we'll play a full recital free to them if we can take an offering at the door. Now we've decided to make a recording to sell (getting proper permission of course).

Any ideas? Thanks!

Brent

ecarroll

Brent,

Trumpet/Organ duos are very, very, difficult as each organ that you play with will have vastly different characteristics. Also, these concerts are very site specific due to the size/acoustic of the church or concert hall. What programs have you done and what do you envision?

Watching,
EC

BFlinch83

Thanks for the response! The first two recitals we played the following program:

Phillips "March"
Torelli "Sonata"
organ solo
Medley of Hymns arr. Curnow
Hovhaness "Sonata for trumpet and organ"
organ solo
Ewazen "Hymn for the Lost and the Living"
Amazing Grace arr. Curnow

The second program is:

Martini "Toccata"
Tartini "Concerto"
organ solo
Suite of Heroic Marches by Telemann
Tomasi "Semanie Saint a Cuzco"
organ solo
Svoboda "Duo Concerto"
Suite of Hymns
David German "Festive Trumpet Tune"

So these programs have been very playable and seemingly interesting to the audiences. The places we've played have been beautiful, large churches with huge, orchestral organs (thus far). I know I wouldn't want to play this type of program in a small, carpeted church.

We would like to know how to get more venues to play and possibly about recording a CD to sell at the concerts. If you have any ideas that would be great!

Brent

ecarroll

Brent,

If you aree in Baltimore I assume you know Donald Sutherland. I'd ask him, if I were you, what the best strategy (website/mailing?) would be to crack other venues. You might be able to buy a mailing list from a national organization like the AGO. Personal contacts, naturally, are far better.

As for a CD, this part is easy but you'll have to plan ahead. Find a good recording engineer (it can be somebody young from one of the colleges that knows ProTools and has access to good mics) and book a session. Be sure to choose an organ on the floor to record with, if possible -- it's hard to hang mics in an organ loft and the schlep up and down with equipment whistles backwards. After you've created a finished master, go to Staples and buy one of those inexpensive label making programs (perhaps somebody here will suggest a name?). CDs are almost obsolete, even as business cards, but I expect that it will still be two or three years before church music directors become web savvy enough to glean what they need from your website (plus CDs can be listened to in a car -- a BIG plus in someplace like Los Angeles)

Good luck,
EC (sunny and 70 today -- eat your heart out!)