WCGS Member Newsletter – May 2020

Hi everyone! Hope you are all well.

WCGS GoFundMe Campaign
If you haven’t donated to our GoFundMe campaign yet, I have some great news for you. An anonymous donor has pledged to match every dollar up to our campaign goal, so now is a great time to give! However, we only have until 6/1, which is only days away, so if you want your contribution to be matched, please act fast!

Donations (including offline donations) can be made directly to our website at https://wilmingtonguitar.org/donate, or to our GoFundMe Campaign page. Donations made directly to our website will also be shown on our GoFundMe Campaign page.

We’re almost there. Please help us reach our goal! WCG has established this fund so that we can pay all of the artists from our cancelled programs. We want to provide them with the income they deserve and were relying on. We want to help them sustain their careers in the face of great uncertainty. We’re also looking ahead to the 2020-2021 season, knowing that in-person concerts may not be possible for a while longer – which will mean further income loss for these emerging artists, and a different sort of loss for all of us who love listening to classical guitar. Therefore, WCG is imagining what virtual alternatives might be. Live-streamed living room concerts. Online masterclasses. Curated playlists with live talk-backs. This fund will also provide seed money so that we can cover artist fees and production costs as we develop new social-distancing-friendly programming. Anything collected over our goal will go to help sustain WCG during these uncertain times.

Members Concert Recap
Thank you sooo much to everyone who contributed music to our 8th Annual Members Concert, which premiered Saturday, 5/23. And thank you all for tuning in and watching with us. By all indications the concert was a rousing success. During the live view we had 66 viewers at our peak, as well as significant contributions to our GoFundMe campaign. Best of all, I’ve heard many many compliments about everyone’s playing as well as the production, from WCG regulars to folks who just happened to tune in, so I couldn’t be happier. Well done everyone!

The video is still available on Facebook, so if you haven’t seen it yet, or would just like another opportunity to watch, please check it out and share it with your friends! We’re really proud of how our community rallied to put this concert together.

Upcoming Salon: This Sunday May 31
Join me this Sunday the 31st, at 6:00 pm on Zoom, for our May Members Salon. We’ll be conducting things as usual, with the caveat that we’ll all be playing and critiquing from the comfort of our own homes. We had a super turnout last month at our second Zoom salon and I’m looking forward to doing it again Sunday!

In addition to our usual antics, I’ve posted our second recent challenge piece in our Facebook group. Hop on there and download it, and give it a try this Sunday! We’ll compare/contrast different performances, and see what works.

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us04web.zoom.us/j/149817292?pwd=Mmk3R0VKRWliNXp3ZFJJeXJtb255UT09

Meeting ID: 149 817 292
Password: 625369

Our Zoom meeting went great thanks to some preparation we all took part in to help things run smoothly. Please follow the instructions below to ensure we all have the best experience possible.

1) Set up your laptop (preferably) or other webcam-enabled device (tablet or phone) in a quiet space in your home.
2) Plug in headphones or earbuds to ensure the sound quality is optimal (conferencing software will otherwise garble your audio as it’s trying to filter voice from background noise).
3) Download the Zoom videoconferencing app and install on your computer or device.
4) Once installed, create an account, and then test your mic and speaker connections in the Zoom app. On the computer app, click on the gear icon (Settings) in the upper right corner under your initials to access the Settings. In settings, click on Video in the menu on the left to preview your video feed. Make sure you have sufficient light on your front for the camera. Click on Audio to test and preview your mic and speakes/headphones.
5) If you plan to perform, while in the Audio settings, click on the advanced box in the bottom right. In the Advanced section, select DISABLE in the “Suppress Persistant Background Noise” and “Suppress Intermittent Background Noise” options. Echo cancellation should be left to “Auto.”Check the box at the top to “Show in meeting option to enable Original Sound from microphone.” Note: not all of these settings are available on other devices. Change what you can.
6) An email will be sent to you just prior to the meeting. Click the link to join.
7) Once joined, click the “Turn on Original Sound” button in the top left of the screen. This will use the unfiltered feed from your microphone, allowing for your most musical performance. If you’re not performing, this isn’t necessary.
8) Have fun! Any further instructions will be given in the meeting.

Note you can always create your own meeting to try out the system and familiarize yourself with what it can do. If you have any questions, please let me know and I’ll try to answer them for you.

Oh, and I wouldn’t plan on playing any duos, unless you really want to give it a chance. The latency issues will yield very mixed results.

We will continue to hold our monthly meetings on Zoom until it is deemed safe to meet again in person. Hopefully, that won’t be too long from now, but I still anticipate it will be several months.

**If you are coming to the salon, please arrive between 5:45 and 6:00. Join up and get your settings straight, and have fun chatting with everyone else.

*NOTE: The following salon will take place on June 28th, location TBD. Mark your calendars!

2020 Salon Schedule
May 31st (online)
June 28th
July 26th
August 30th
September 27th
October 25th
November 22nd
December 13th

April Meeting Recap
We had a fantastic turnout at last month’s online meeting, and 11 outstanding performances! Thanks everyone for showing up and participating. Hope to see you all again this Sunday.

Performers from April in no particular order:
Robert Guerrero – Ruscello by Carlo Domeniconi
Scott Kuykendall – Snowflight and Willow by Andrew York
Debbie Mulrooney – Piece by Thierry Tisserand
Joanna Daneman – Lession No.84 by Julio Sagreras
Ralph Dominica – Aeolian Mode by Reginald Smith Brindle and Lesson in A by Dionisio Aguado and Lession No.24 by Julio Sagreras
Viet Nguyen – La Negra by Antonio Lauro
Matthew Lavanish – Birds Flew Over the Spire by Gary Ryan
John Nguyễn – Plegaria by Guillermo Gomez
Carl Abramson – Bouree from Partita No.1 in Bm by Johann Sebastian Bach
Simon Varley – Aeolian Mode by Reginald Smith Brindle
Derek Mansen – Aeolian Mode by Reginald Smith Brindle

Other Events
All live events are cancelled or have moved online. Stay home and stay healthy.

For more information on upcoming events, please visit our event calendar at https://wilmingtonguitar.org/calendar.

To submit an event, please Email our event calendar coordinator at events@wilmingtonguitar.org.

We’re at 2,315 likes on Facebook! Make sure you’re one of them, and help us break the 2,500 mark! https://www.facebook.com/wilmingtonguitar

Best,
Matthew Lavanish
President & Artistic Director – The Wilmington Classical Guitar Society