Cary Cross Currents Festival Poster 2011

Take a look at our beautiful poster!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/64177248@N06/?saved=1

What a Difference a Good Intern Makes!

Things are getting better.

Jerry Davis, director of Burning Coal Theatre, came by my office the other day.  In one quick look he surveyed the heap of work on my desk, the freshly delivered posters waiting to be hung around town, the ringing telephone, the stack of notes of things to be done and the general chaos of all that is an international music festival.

“Who is helping you with all this?”

Such a question.  I just laughed.

“I’ve got 14 interns this summer,” he said, in his most measured stage voice, letting each word have its dramatic due.  His assistant stood smiling by his side.

“We could give her one.”  She offered.

“A good one,” he countered.

And, so, that’s how Rachel McKay came to help me.  She’s wonderful. Competent.  She’s a rising junior at Appalachian majoring in theatre with a concentration in design and technology and a minor in apparrel and communications.  She hangs posters, unravels the mess I have created in my haste of trying to do too much in too little time.  She knows her way around the internet as well as downtown Raleigh AND Cary…and she drives!  She loves the theatre but I have assured her that music festivals have their drama as well.

Thank you Jerry.  And, thank you Rachel.

In the meantime, our wonderful designer, Allison Mitchell, has put the final touches on our 32 page festival program.  Jeff (thank you) has stayed up several nights proofing and tweaking.  It looks great.

We at last have our Visa in hand for the musicians.  Neil has managed to accomodate all the musician’s various schedules and needs and will be herding them into the Belgian visa office next week to get that one last step taken care of.

I’ve asked friends to bake cookies to help feed the students as well as the orchestra members during the festival.  Fourteen days of workshops, open rehearsals and concerts is a long time.  Musicians seem to like cookies.  Chocolate is the flavor of choice and lemon is a close second.  Bake a batch if you have time.  I promise they will be both eaten and appreciatted.

I can’t look at the calendar anymore.  I don’t want to know what day it is or how few days there are left before it all happens.

On the other hand.  I can’t wait.  The music this year will be great!

The dreams are starting again. The ones where you think you have everything in place and then the curtains open and the audience is nowhere to be found.
Organizing a festival is a little like old age: it is not for sissies. It is more work then even I imagined possible. There’s the fundraising, the visas, the programming, the contracts with musicians, the endless meetings and presentations, the thousands of phone calls and emails, the ads, the programs, the printers, the posters, the plane tickets and housing and meals. I should have known better.
But then I get a phone call from someone who heard the festival last year asking when they can buy tickets. Or, I hear Lorenzo Gatto, our soloist for this summer, play a special concert in April and I can’t wait to tell everyone how spectacular it is going to be.

And, it is. This year we will have a weeklong intensive workshop for local high school string players, five incredible concerts (two with Lorenzo) and six open rehearsals. We’ve also formed a collaboration with four local Cary restaurants hoping to help build interest and traffic in downtown Cary.
Then there’s the new facility: Cary Arts Center, that is just this side of spectacular.
There is much to look forward to.
Go online. It’s time to buy tickets.

It’s happening again.

The dreams are starting again. The ones where you think you have everything in place and then the curtains open and the audience is no where to be found.
Organizing a festival is a little like old age: it is not for sissies. It is more work then even I imagined possible. There’s the fundraising, the visas, the programming, the contracts with musicians, the endless meetings and presentations, the thousands of phone calls and emails, the ads, the programs, the printers, the posters, the plane tickets and housing and meals. I should have known better.
But then I get a phone call from someone who heard the festival last year asking when they can buy tickets. Or, I hear Lorenzo Gatto, our soloist for this summer, play a special concert in April and I can’t wait to tell everyone how spectacular it is going to be.

And, it is. This year we will have a weeklong intensive workshop for local high school string players, five incredible concerts (two with Lorenzo) and six open rehearsals. We’ve also formed a collaboration with four local Cary restaurants hoping to help build interest and traffic in downtown Cary.
Then there’s the new facility: Cary Arts Center, that is just this side of spectacular.
There is much to look forward to.
Go online. It’s time to buy tickets.

It’s happening again.

It Is Happening Again…

The dreams: where you think you have everything in place and then the curtains open and the audience is no where to be found.
Organizing a festival is a little like old age: it is not for sissies. It is more work then even I imagined possible. There’s the fundraising, the visas, the programming, the contracts with musicians, the endless meetings and presentations, the thousands of phone calls and emails, the ads, the programs, the printers, the posters, the plane tickets and housing and meals. I should have known better.
But then I get a phone call from someone who heard the festival last year asking when they can buy tickets. Or, I hear Lorenzo Gatto, our soloist for this summer, play a special concert in April and I can’t wait to tell everyone how spectacular it is going to be.

And, it is. This year we will have a weeklong intensive workshop for local high school string players, five incredible concerts (two with Lorenzo) and six open rehearsals. We’ve also formed a collaboration with four local Cary restaurants hoping to help build interest and traffic in downtown Cary.
Then there’s the new facility: Cary Arts Center, that is just this side of spectacular.
There is much to look forward to.
Go online. It’s time to buy tickets.

It’s happening again.

Wrapping up

Thirteen events, ten days…what were we thinking?  We were thinking that the only way to build something is to do something, so we did.

The orchestra is now back in Brussels and I’m busy wrapping up the bills, writing thank you letters, unloading my car and beginning to dream about what we’ll do next year.

Our five free events were packed.  We introduced 1,350 children to classical music during Music Day @ Marbles.  Our concerts were well attended and wonderful and at the end of it all what we were proud of most was the number of new people sitting in our audience.

If you came to a concert, tell us.  If you liked what you heard, tell a friend.  If there’s something you think we could do better, don’t hesitate to let us know.  If you’d like to see us come back next year, make a donation.

We’re hoping to add more “educational” type events to our roster next year: more master classes, more CD signings and talks, more open rehearsals.  We also want to reach out to communities who love music but might not have ever attended a classical concert.

If you have any ideas, please let us know.  Send your comments to: cjknowles@earthlink.net.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Carrie Knowles/Cross Currents Festival Director

3 down, 10 to go

We’ve had 3 of our events so far: a signing at Quail Ridge, Music Day @ Marbles Kids Museum, and the first concert at Marbles with the BCO, the Pierre Anckaert Jazz Quintet and the Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship. There have also been a few rehearsals, including the open one that’s happening as I type, in the Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh. Yesterday was really fun, even though the other interns and I worked for like 15 hours straight. Lots of adorable kids and really great music all day, with only a few minor glitches. Curiosity Square actually works really well as a concert hall; the acoustics are surprisingly good. The biggest problem we had was getting the online ticket sale box office thing working, so if you’re buying tickets at the door it would be great if you could do so in cash. We sold a whole bunch of CDs too, both the Strings Attached project and Will Scruggs’ latest album.

I guess this would be as good a time as any to introduce you to all the other interns. We have Bela, who is from Brussels, Madeleine, who I know from music camp, Charles, the son of one of the Mallarmé Chamber Players, Mary Grayson, who I know from high school, and Sophie, a friend of one of our board members. They’re the people who really keep the festival going, and we’re so grateful to have them.

g2g donut tiem lolz
-betty

And so it begins…..

The musicians are arriving tonight! They caught their flight from Europe no problem so they should get here around 5:30, and that’s when things really get rolling. Carrie and I went over to the main rehearsal space yesterday to deliver stands, and I was amazed at how close it is to where the musicians are staying… just a few blocks away!

In other news, WRAL blogger Sarah Hall wrote up a great post about bringing your kids to our events (please do it). You can read it here.

One final note: if you or anyone you know reviews concerts, please come!! We’d love to see some feedback since we’re still getting the hang of this, plus reviews are a great way to get people interested and at our concerts. It’s hard to find reviewers around here, so even if you aren’t one professionally, blog about us! Tell us what you think! This festival is supported by the community and we’re really doing it all for you, so your opinion is the most important to us. If you post anything about us anywhere, leave a comment with a link so we can check it out. Thanks so much for all your support, we couldn’t have done any of this without y’all.

frantically,
Betty

Dreams

Last night I had a dream about eating rhubarb pie, so this morning when I woke up I did. Making dreams a reality is kind of a theme here at Cross Currents HQ. The Festival itself started off as a dream the BCO had, and through their hard work, Carrie’s, and now mine that dream has come true. It wasn’t as easy as pie, but this dream come true is much sweeter. Not only do we get to see our own ideas come to fruition (sorry about all the puns), we get to introduce kids and all sorts of audiences to some of the greatest music ever written. The BCO is a unique group (all under 35, no conductor, only 12 people), so the festival they imagined is not like any other music festival. Come see these visionaries in action July 2-11, and in the meantime make another of my dreams come true and buy your tickets online! Alright, enough musing, I have to go send out some press release and put stamps on things. See you there,

Betty

Interns Assemble!

We just had out first all-intern meeting! Charles, Madeleine, Mary Grayson, and Sophie all came over to Carrie’s house to eat delicious noms and cardboard floor cookies. We talked about schedules and emailing and all the stuff I do all the time, except a lot more slowly. It was rad and we talked about 90s slang (obvi). More when something actually happens,

Betty