Keeping a Gig for 30 Years?

After all these years, a new post on B.B.B.B. and what's it about? Keeping the Texas Brass and Herald Trumpets employed at the Texas Renaissance Festival for thirty years this fall, 2014. Yep, we are doing it again. Some old timers like Matthew Jenkins, been playing out there off and on for 15 years. Steve Curtis, going on almost 10 with his tuba and me, Darryl Bayer, still doing the RenFest for more than half his life. So we wear costumes, play herald trumpets at the joust, do cheesy scenario snippets but...wait for it...three one hour shows of pure brass ensemble to the core kick butt hard chamber music - outdoors - in a gazebo - with thousands of people listening - selling CDs - making money - hiring new musicians right out of Rice and University of Houston Music Schools - for eight weekends without a break. Now that's a gig.

How did we keep it? Really, it's hard to say. I think it's the ability to play all day long without getting tired. A quick mind to improvise a theme song for the King on the spot. Only asking for a raise every couple of years and keeping the raise within reason. One more thing, it could be destiny.

Everyone has a place on this planet. A calling in life. Could it be that the Texas Renaissance Festival is the calling for this particular brass ensemble? Everyone that has ever played with Texas Brass at the festival looks back on the memories fondly. We also get plenty of residual gigs. In fact, about three weeks into the festival we are performing for a Fantasy Renaissance Theme Wedding in the Woodlands Texas. Two nights, three performances and it will pay quite well. Christmas parties in costume, madrigal dinners, theater performances during the year with the cast of characters and the list goes on. It's not bad. Sure, we should be doing more recitals, definitely need a Christmas CD (soon) and the occasional HS Clinic or College Master Class - which we do a few times a year. But - we have kept a gig for 30 years and 2014 marks a milestone for the Texas Brass at the Texas Renaissance Festival. 

Come hear us on the New Market Gazebo Stage at 10:00 AM, 1:30 PM and 3:30 PM during the months of October and November in Plantersville Texas.