Concert: Maeve Gilchrist, Celtic harp & Eugene Friesen, cello double bill @ The Pushkin, Greenfield, MA
You can listen to Eugene Friesen’s music here.
1. Start and end with exclamation points! He started by playing a very energetic version of a very energetic Bach piece. He ended with a fast Brazilian song accompanied by Maeve Gilchrist.
2. Play what will work best for the venue. This ex-bank has a three-story marble atrium with amazing, reverberating acoustics. Acoustic instruments sound lush in the space. But it’s hard to understand what someone is saying even 10 feet away. So, even though he usually hum-sings what he’s playing as well, he only hum-sang on one song.
3. Trust the audience to stay with you. He ranged from Bach to New Age playing with recordings of whales to very-outside blues to Brazilian music. He trusted attentive ears to stay with him, focusing on playing what his heart was passionate about.
4. Bring your life into it. His story of painting his house and listening to all of the life within his house while he was outside created a heart connection with the listeners.
5. Send the people off with beauty. For an encore Friesen and Gilchrist played a song by Bill Evans, the loveliest ten-bar song ever written – Blue in Green.
“Let the beauty you love be what you do.” – Rumi
Quixote Consulting helps teams become artists of their work with music team building activities such as Play the Blues harmonica team building, Give the Kids Music, Music of Teams, Build a Team Song, Bang On My Drum All Day, Networking Music Dinner and more.
