Pre-Concert Routine

Now that we're playing concerts almost every night, we've settled into a pre-concert routine that has it's quirks but seems to work for us.

We arrive at the venue between 4 and 4:30 and those who don't know us might think we'd just had a fight because we scatter to all corners of the hall (Donna on stage, Em and I in whatever other rooms we can find). But actually we're just warming up individually, giving Donna a chance to get used to the piano and giving everyone a chance to reconnect with their instruments after the hours in the car. After about 15-30 minutes, we reconvene onstage and rehearse for an hour or so, checking spots that have given us problems or trying some new ideas to spice things up.

By 6:15 Ryan arrives with some snacks (usually horribly healthy things like fruit, yogurt, and cottage cheese ;-) . It's hard to find healthy food on the road and we find that often a grocery store is the best option. Then we put on our dresses and make-up, a routine that gets old much faster than playing the concert itself. If I could do it in jeans, it'd be easy!

Donna usually meets with the page-turner during this time to talk them through the program and how it will go (last night we had a really nice page turner who is a nun in a Benedictine abbey in SD.) Ryan gives us a 2 minute warning at around 7:28, and then we're on!