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Today was my first ever in person Christmas Concert, it was awesome!
I grew up performing as a string player in various ensembles and orchestras. I was also in the Swing band on piano in sixth form. At best (or worst for my anxiety) I also had the opportunity to play solo at a couple of school concerts, but I always dreaded them and was shaky at the keys, which led to mistakes and me going bright red in front of everyone!
Those times are behind me, and I spent the last three years building up my confidence virtually via my Facebook group, starting with a very scared “Glasgow Love Theme” from Love Actually in November 2020.
As I put on what was to be my final virtual concert at Christmas 2022, one of my networking friends piped up and said “The reason you’re not selling as many tickets this year? People want in person stuff now, times are changing!”
January 2023 I made the intention. Christmas 2023 I would do my first ever in person Christmas concert. As host, as solo pianist! I was ready! The lesson learnt was I should tell people about it a lot earlier in the year, as many couldn’t make it due to other commitments by the time I told them about it. It’s a tricky one to balance is the line between “It’s too early to talk Christmas” v “We want to be organised in time for Christmas!”
I invited as many students that I felt could be ready for the concert in time, and many said yes initially, but as the time came nearer and clashes with timetables came up, it just wasn’t possible for some. Others were too shy and said “maybe next year” and there was a super enthusiastic little girl who wanted to play Jingle Bells, but sadly it wasn’t to be. By the time the day came round, I had 3 strong players.
Lena and Savannah were a similar age and stage, both working towards their grade 1. Jack was 9 and working towards his grade 2. All three were nervous as they’d never had the chance to “Perform” before, but I reassured them there is no need to be perfect, don’t worry, just do your best!
I arrived at the hall for 1pm so I could set up. My little team of helpers moved the chairs around, while I unpacked my boxes and set up the tickets/raffle/books.
I asked the performing students to arrive at 1.30 to have a quick run through their own pieces. That worked nicely, although amongst the Christmas Tunes, “Sneaky Business” was heard a few times, she was warming up, that’s cool! I had to try and hush them by the time it was 1.55pm though as most people were finding their seats.
We had a smaller number of around 25 attending, which was a bit smaller than I’d perhaps hoped for, but I’d not been able to promote it as much as I’d wanted to, and the weather was a bit stormy, so all things considered 25 was not a bad number! They were mainly families of my students, including some of my students who had just chosen to come and watch. A few networking friends attended too, so it was nice to catch up with people.
I had 15 pieces and a proper printed programme, which had been carefully assembled by myself and Shel the previous day.
I held on until 10 past 2, just in case of any stragglers, but promised to start, so on we went. The order of the day went:
- Little Drummer Boy – just had to be the opening piece <3
- O Christmas Tree – the “tinkly” one!
3. Silent Night – Played by Lena and myself. She was very nervous, but as people were singing along, I tried to sing next to her while playing the left hand. She got a bit stuck in one place, but we managed to keep going, and she was proud when she got a round of applause at the end!
4.Hark the Herald
5. We Three Kings – Played by Savannah and myself. She played the first verse perfectly, then got a bit stuck on the second verse, so I had to point out her notes, but then she was right again. I could hear the relief from her, as she concluded the piece.
6. Walking in the Air – I told a story about meeting a Jazz pianist in a restaurant and finding out his amazing music was improv because he couldn’t actually read music!
7. Deck the Hall was the second carol. It was great to be able to play a carol and have people sing along like the good old days before lockdown!
The interval was 20 minutes long, and Shel was leading the refreshments. I had a special deal on my book “Tales of an Anxiety Warrior” just for the day, so a few took advantage of that, which meant I hit my 2023 goal of selling 100 total copies of my book! Everything ran super smoothly, and the biscuits certainly went down well. I had a few quick conversations with some of the guests, including one who may be interested in piano lessons in the future!
Back to the concert…
It was time to do the raffle, and because there was a smaller group of people, I let people choose their prizes. It was neat that there were 6 vouchers and 6 physical prizes to win:
- Avon Goody bag (From Shel)
- Tropic Goody Bag (from me, with handmade crochet basket from Yarn by Robot Bella)
- Les Frogs Sweatshirt from Lyn Smith
- Vision Board Blueprints book and crystals from Lisa Williams
- Body Shop cherry set from Anne-Marie Jones
- Bottle of Bucks Fizz donated by Mind
- Voucher for Aphoria (Abi Pritchard)
- Voucher for Green Olive Vegan Cafe
- Breakfast at Plas Coch, Llanberis (Fiona Nicholson)
- Voucher for HypnoWellbeing (Jackie Thomson)
- Voucher for a personalised photo slate from Summit Branding
- Voucher for an Empower hour with Laura Teare-Jones
The breakfast voucher was the first one to get snapped up by one of my piano students! There was a great range of prizes to win though, so grateful to all the businesses that contributed to the day <3
Onwards with the second half though..
8. All I want for Christmas is YOU! The statement piece. It was loud, that’s all that mattered, right?!
9. O Holy Night – I promised to play it slower.. I tried!
10. O Little Town of Bethlehem – the next carol, nicely sung by the audience <3
11. Fairytale of New York as a tribute to Shane McGowan who’d recently passed away.
12. Away in a Manger – this was Jack’s solo. I set next to him because he was feeling nervous, but he was generally ok. He got stuck in one bit and sort of froze, but I brought him back in and all was good. Loud round of applause at the end. Happy student 🙂
13. God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen – the somewhat serious one…
14. Oh Come all Ye Faithful – we did the dynamics, but we didn’t shout the last bit!
15. And finally, with my tradition from all of my previous (virtual) concerts, we had to finish with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” because after all, I was wishing my audience a very merry Christmas <3
I did a small bow to the applause at the end, and asked my performing students to come up to the front, and Shel took a photo of us 🙂
I thanked everyone for attending, and then hung around so that the parents could chat. Everyone thanked me and said what a lovely concert it was, and I promised them I’d do one next year. The students who chose not to play said they’d probably like to play next year. Time will tell.
But for now, I can rest. This was my biggest goal of 2023. Smashed it!
Thanks to my volunteers Shel, Abi & James for bringing it all together, and to all the small businesses who contributed to the raffle <3
Edited: 50% of the profits were to be donated, so we donated £65 to my chosen charity: Mind Conwy.
