When I was at my last year of Academy of Music and Theater in Vilnius I suddenly realized that playing organ in public is not given once you graduate. So many of my colleagues ended up doing entirely different things in their lives just to make a living and put their love for the pipe organ on the back burner.
In order to play recitals in the future I understood the need for me to get myself out there. Because nobody in the world knew I existed. Here's what I did back then (around 2000): I found hundreds of churches online in various countries which had interesting organs and I wrote a recital proposal to them via email. Guess what happened? Only one replied saying I could come and play at some church in Hamburg, Germany at my expense. I didn't have the money to travel so that was the end of it. OK, I thought I was nobody. I needed more education. So I went to the US to get my second Masters and Doctoral degrees. I repeated my spamming experiment after some years back in 2006 or 2007. Again out of hundreds of contacts, only a few replied. I was being rejected again. I was a stranger to them asking for money on the street. Not a nice feeling. I'm sure you have been in my shoes more than once. Then something in my mentality switched. I realized I have to give first many times before earning the privilege to get. So I began writing a blog with helpful and inspiring advice. Later I started a podcast where my guests often would be organists at places where I would like to play next. I keep in touch with all those people who were on my show. Now I'm not a stranger to them. I'm the person whom they can trust because I helped them achieve something they all want - reach more people who appreciate their work. Could you do this too? Could you write a blog and have a podcast where you would interview people from the organ world? If you did this regularly week after week, month after month, what do you think would happen to your credibility, authority and trust that is need to get invited to play organ recitals? Let me know if you need help with anything or feel stuck.
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