Hello friends! We have exciting news today. I’ll get straight to it:
Today, we officially begin
our search for hosts
for our first-ever
Virtual Summer House Concert Tour!
A house concert tour for a changed world
It was a punch to the gut when Jamie and I realized last month that ongoing physical distancing measures — while necessary to slow and contain the spread of the new coronavirus — would result in us being unable to do a 2020 Summer House Concert Tour.
We are going to deeply miss seeing in person all of the people we’ve met over the years — people who have become friends, people whom we have come to love like family.
But also: with many of us sheltering in place — while also trying to navigate and process this great unknown — it’s clear that we need togetherness, perhaps now more than ever.
- To make meaningful connections with one another.
- To gather with intention.
- To pause … and to allow ourselves the experience of presence, and beauty, and humanity.
And we realized … all of the reasons we’ve been so dedicated to doing house concerts for the last 8 years seem even more essential in this time.
So we’re moving the tour ☛ ONLINE.
This will be a summer-long series of concerts
performed from our basement studio in Tacoma,
and streamed out over a private video link
on the internet,
as a shared experience exclusively for you
and your community of friends and family
— wherever in the world you (and they) might be.
Would you like to host a concert?
Things you’ll need to be a host:
☛ You’ll need a phone, tablet, or computer with internet access.
☛ You’ll need a minimum of 20 adult friends to join you (online!) for the concert.
Things you DO NOT need to be a host:
☛ You don’t have to be a computer genius to host an online concert — we’ll take care of managing all the technical details of delivering a great-sounding and interactive house concert experience to you and all your guests. All you’ll have to do is click a link that we’ll send you.
☛ You don’t have to have a house! Unlike our in-person house concerts, where we require a physical space for 30 adults to gather, the virtual experience opens up the possibility of hosting a concert to those who don’t have that kind of physical space in their homes.
☛ You don’t have to live in North America. No matter where in the world you live, we can do a house concert with you. We’re going global, baby.
☛ You don’t have to have a bunch of money to pay us for the concert. We do most of our concerts on what we call an “open donation” basis. You’ll ask your guests to come prepared to make an online donation at the conclusion of the concert, based on what they decide they would like to contribute for the experience we’ve created for them. In this way, the concert is paid for in a crowd-sourced way — like a micro-GoFundMe art experience with your friends.
(If you’d rather pay us directly to perform a concert for your friends, instead of asking them for a donation, that’s an option available to you as well.)
All of this info is an excerpt from our very thorough and fun 2020 Virtual House Concert Host Guide, which we would love to send to you.
If you’d like information
about hosting an online house concert,
email me today,
and I’ll send you the info and application.
Message me at skc@shannoncurtis.net.
For the first time ever, hosts get to choose their own concert dates on a first-come, first-served basis, so message us right away to get your pick!
Is this Virtual House Concert Tour thing going to fly? We have no idea!
All of us — worldwide — are in uncharted territory in this time; and just like you, we’ve been doing our best to figure out how to pivot, adapt, and meet the moment. And so … hearts forward … we launch into something new and unknown.