Here we go... it is a few days before our next ensemble concert. All the marketing and everything has been done. Tomorrow, our guests will arrive late in the evening... I will rehearse the student who is appearing with us so that they will be ready to join the professional crew... and at the same time, I will hear someone who has contacted us out of the blue and is interested in playing with us.

Then a day of rehearsing... and then the concert is on the following day. I have been travelling without my instruments (well, I've had the wrong instruments...) for the last couple of weeks and so the last day has been a cramming in of everything... so that I'm technically ready, and also ready with a vision for the pieces and performance.

I'm incredibly surprised by the pre-sales bookings... three concerts into our ensemble life, and the audience keeps growing each time, and this time, the pre-bookings have surpassed our previous total tickets sold for the second concert (pre-bookings and door tickets)! I really never thought that we would ever manage this in our first few years... let alone only half way through our first year! The community support has been really amazing, and people seem to be coming back and bringing a friend each time...

On the financial front, we have kept things lean and mean... and when we got grant funding, we were able to have so much more flexibility. And the ticket sales have meant that we are banking a small buffer each time (without the grant...), so we are building up a cash reserve that means that we can weather a little hiccup... or to be generous and to give out free lessons to students and local professionals with visiting guest artists!

I have seen other similar arts/music ensembles crash and burn on the financial front... either through being too dependent on grants, or by mis-allocating their donations and buffers. I am quite blown away by how musicians can chew through money and not keep an eye out on the incoming/outgoing flow over the longer term. Everything seems to run on a knife edge at all times... and I don't want out group to do that. Sure, we have a buffer, but I'm not going to blow it on a photo shoot or an overly ambitious project! It's tempting... but very poor financial planning!

We still need to set up a separate entity bank account (waiting on the government to give us a tax file number...)... we have been holding some donations at bay until that happens.

It is quite astounding that this really is only our first year of running... other musicians that I've talked to have also been quite surprised that we have hit the ground running so fast. A chamber music series, plus several outreach concerts... and education workshops and schools presentations. It really has been a whirlwind!

Tiring... but so very satisfying!

So... just enjoying the lull before this week's storm and flurry of rehearsals and concerts. Everything is in place... we are now at the bit where we are supposed to be at our most comfortable! Not marketing, not publicity, not writing... but actually playing the bloody instruments!

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