Dear <<First Name>>,
The rumors of our demise are much exaggerated! We've been quiet lately, and we're sorry for being out of touch. We're still dealing with the trailing end of the effects of the pandemic, and it's done a number on our scheduling of concerts. Combine that with our artistic director being in California about half of the time for school and we decided to go on hiatus this fall in hopes that enough of us would be available in the spring to be able to produce the concerts we have in mind for you!
If you're really missing us, we're performing a short, free concert at the Dripping Springs Community Library (map) on Tuesday afternoon December 7 at noon. Entitled "Of Christmases and Cowboys," we'll be performing Spanish, Mexican, English, and French music related to, well, Christmas and cowboys! Click here to register for the program. If you can't make it, don't worry – we're hoping to record it and put it on our YouTube page – click on the link and subscribe to be notified when we post new content!
We're starting our end-of-the-year, Giving Tuesday fundraiser today! Everything that we receive, along with everything we've received from you since our last program in May, will go toward two exciting and unique concerts we have planned that we are hoping to be able to bring to you in the spring. Both are concerts of Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian music related to our director's doctoral research at UCLA, and both will include several pieces never performed before in the US! Not on Facebook, or would you rather contribute directly to us through our online donation portal or via a check in the mail? Simply click here. We'll still count it in our Giving Tuesday totals.
According to our most recent financial analysis, 65% of our budget is made up of costs related to compensating our musicians. So, 65¢ of every dollar you contribute goes directly to our immensely talented musicians in the form of performance fees or airfare/mileage reimbursement for travel to and from Austin. It's very important to us to be good stewards of your contributions, and we do all we can to keep non-musician costs down so we can continue to increase pay to our musicians for their talents and work.
We miss you all so much and can't wait to be back in front of you sharing the music we all love. Here's to hoping this is our only hiatus ever! As soon as the details for the shows are nailed down, we'll post them on our website and send you a message. Happiest of Decembers to you all!
Musically yours,
Billy Traylor – Artistic Director
Stephanie Noori – Concertmaster
Hannah McGinty — Chorusmaster
James Moran – President, Board of Directors
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