How to book 251 concerts, part N: super-presenters (impre-CZAR-ios)

Sometimes we reach out to people we think can help us identify a venue in their town. Sometimes they reach out to us. Now and then an angel agent appears who fingers venues or local performers for many towns at once.

Composer Sara Doncaster is the longtime head of the music program at Lake Region Union High School. The typical town in Vermont does not have its own high school but belongs to a consortium of several towns with a single school, the result of a rural and aging population, and the fact that Vermont has the highest number of towns per capita any US state. So Sara knows decades of current and former students from multiple towns. For many years she also ran a new music festival in the Northeast Kingdom, using several venues, so she knows most of the places in her area with decent pianos. Sara has helped us to identify venues or student musicians in Brownington, Conventry, Irasburg, Albany, Lyndon, Newport, Derby, and probably others I’m not recalling now.

Anne D’Olivo is ideally situated to offer us help: a percussionist and singer who has performed and directed church music for years throughout Southwestern Vermont, she is also founder of the local node of 350 Vermont—and was formerly an arts promoter in the UK. She knew the places to play and people to play with in half of the towns in and around Bennington County, and reached out to her extensive network to get information on many more. She organized our Manchester concert, negotiating with the Southern Vermont Arts Center to offer us their fancy facilities at no cost and engaging local favorite vocalist Maxine Linehan, helping to draw a large and enthusiastic crowd. Anne may also act as the presenter or promoter for future Play Every Town concerts in the area.

Special mention goes to Mark Violette. He found us locations in “only” three Northeast Kingdom towns, but as a church music director in all of them, acted as the presenter for all three, making him our only triple-sponsor so far: Brownington, our first “away” gig; Westmore, pop. 357, our first seriously small town, and Holland, Mark’s hometown, date TBD at this writing.