Home » Member Page
Laura Michele Agigian
About Me
My Jazz Story
My House Concert Story
House concerts are becoming more prevalent here in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are wonderful way to hear great music in a comfortable, intimate setting and meet others in your community that share your love of a particular kind of music. There are many small, intimate clubs that are popping up that have the feel of a house concert, but few residents are hosting concerts at their homes with jazz music. Last summer, I hosted my third annual house concert series, the Jazz and Chocolate Backyard Benefit Concert Series. (The first two summers, I hosted one concert and last summer I expanded it to a series of three concerts.) The shows were held in my backyard, where I had a small stage set up, surrounded by flowering bushes and fruit trees.. Guests came and enjoyed a glass of wine or sparkling cider, wonderful hors d’oeuvres, a box of chocolates from my home-based business, Creative Confections (I am also a chocolatier, and I made the chocolates for the events), and of course, fantastic live jazz. I had a different set of musicians for each show. I worked with three local nonprofits who came and spoke at the events, collected donations, and were the recipient of the net proceeds of the shows. It was an unexpectedly large amount of work coordinating all of the various factors: the musicians, the nonprofits, the digital advertising, posting and passing out flyers, preparing the house and the backyard,, setting up the stage, the PA system, the food, wine, tables and chairs, keeping track of the tickets and donations, etc., not to mention making the chocolates and preparing my charts (I had the pleasure of singing several selections with each band). My family pitched in edit show to help them run smoothly and efficiently. It was an incredible experience, and truly a win-win-win-win situation: the musicians had nice gigs (that ended early!), three nonprofits received monetary and physical donations, people in my community enjoyed a beautiful evening of food, drink, jazz, and chocolates, and I had the immense pleasure and honor of hosting beautiful community gatherings in my backyard. It was an incredible learning experience,, and I look forward to doing it again next summer!
