jane's blog

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Planning a Recital Program

Planning a recital program is like planning a dinner menu. You want to take into account your guests (your public) and their tastes and knowledge level, and you want to show yourself to your best advantage, so you plan a menu that not only appeases the sophistication of your guests’ tastes (your public), but also accentuates YOU, requiring accoutrements, décor, ambiance ingredients, theatrics, and proportion (however YOU see fit). Having learned the recital programming rules first (group ingredients, group length & number, program strong points & overall composer locations-creating the program arc-and contemporary composer placement), you will then know how to creatively and personally bend those rules to accommodate you and your program idea.
If your guests are a public in the making, you consider differently, as opposed to an experienced and experimentally tolerant public (different kinds of perception and reception)! Plan according to what your guests (your public) can comprehend, tolerate and digest while keeping in mind that we are constantly educating and building publics.
If you are one who feels the world should begin a dinner menu with an ice cream sundae, do it! A program can be designed that way if that’s who you are and what you can do best. It can work for YOU…always taking into consideration that which governs necessary recital programming rules (menu wise).
You want to put YOUR personal “thumbprint” on your recital, and you will. Then, creatively bending the rules, to suit YOU, is great fun and legitimate innovation, as long as you know the rules you are bending!





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