How to arrange organ recitals without a manager

Would you like to play more organ recitals but don't have a manager to make arrangements for you?

You are not alone.

I also don't have one. I also work solo (although I was invited to work with them more than once in the past).

Why?

Because having a manager nowadays doesn't guarantee you'll get invited to play organ recitals.

Yes, your manager will take a fee, do some work but results will be unpredictable, unless you are an A-list player. A star. Or at least a rising star in the organ world.

The strange thing is they take your payment REGARDLESS whether they get you results or not. Regardless of whether they arrange any organ recitals for you at all.

There are agencies which do promotion for you. Promotion, like advertising on their website which no one uses, place ads in trade magazines where your picture gets lost among tenths of other organists.

That's about all they do. They are terrible in social media communications, never bother to blog. Promotions they do for their email subscribers almost always feel like spam.

Most people I know from the organ management world only care about themselves.

So, why do you need them when you'll still have to do the work yourself?

Why do you need a middleman, a gatekeeper when you have the power to connect with your future concert organizers yourself?

If you do the work, it will save you thousands of dollars plus you'll start empowering yourself, learning new skills of engaging communication. This in itself is a game-changer in today's world for any professional.

So how do you arrange your organ recitals without a manager?

Well, you simply have to do the leg-work yourself. Starting from establishing credibility in the organ world, positioning yourself as a go-to expert, finding the potential venues, finding your 1000 true fans, earning trust of the people in charge, developing relationships with them, helping them get what they want and, finally, asking for recitals.

And if you're stuck, you can ask for help from somebody who's done it.

Remember, you don't have to do everything all at once overnight. Just take each day one step further towards developing your organist career. Make it a habit for 30 days. Use your willpower during this time. After that the discipline required to continue will be there and actually it will feel weird NOT to do something every day to empower yourself as an organist.