Mount Toby
Concerts Annual Report
September, 2015
– June, 2016
Our new concert series, “Mount Toby Concerts for Peace and Social
Change,” began in September and ended in June, with a fine series of performers
and good attendance at most concerts. Our purposes in creating the series
were outreach to our community, providing a venue for performers who cannot
easily find performance opportunities, and support for musicians carrying
forward the tradition of music as a voice for peace and justice; they are given
90% of the “gate” and sometimes 100%. The concerts were well received by the
Meeting as well as by the general public. The performers were exceptional in
their presentations and in their songs for social change.
The
schedule of artists was as follows:
September 27: Charlie King
October
22: John
McCutcheon
November
21: Tom
Juravich and Teresa Healy
December
19: Bev
Grant with John Coster opening
January
16: Annie Patterson and Peter Blood
February
20: Magpie
March
12: David Rovics
April
16: Terry Kitchen & Mara Levine
May
21: Sue Kranz & Ben Tousley
June
17: Dave Lippman and Jay Mankita
Most
of the performers are professional singer/songwriters whose music represents
the mission of the Peace & Social Concerns Committee, the presenter of the
concert series. Songs addressed social concerns such as peace & war, social
justice, racial and economic equality, Palestinian suffering, and labor issues.
They touched on present and historical events and issues; these songwriters
offered poignant stories which were educational as well as entertaining.
The
Peace & Social Concerns Committee thanks all who
helped make the series a success:
Diane
Crowe, coordinator
Roger
Conant, financial manager
David
Scott, stage builder
Beth
Adams, refreshments
Annie
Patterson & Peter Blood, sound equipment loan
Kit
Johnson, sound
Jay
Mankita, sound
Judi
Campbell, posters
Janie
& Don Stone, ticket takers
Dave
Grodsky & Paddy Lane, traffic control and ticket
takers
Ruth
Hazzard & Claude Tellier,
hospitality housing and ticket takers
Sue
Alexander, hospitality housing
Many
others helped with set-up and clean-up. Pardon if some were not mentioned.
Most
of the concerts were well attended, except one. The Peace & Social Concerns
Committee encourages the Mount Toby community to attend the concerts regularly.
If the series is to be successful and continue, a core dedicated audience is
needed. It is hoped that the concert dates will be added to members' priorities
and that all the performers in the future will have good-sized audiences.
Future
bookings for the series include:
September
17: emma's revolution
October
15: Ellen Bukstel
November: Sara Thomsen
December
17: David Roth
In
process of booking are: John McCutcheon, Reggie Harris & Pat Wictor and Anne Feeney.
Although Mount Toby policy is that gatherings such as this
supported by the Meeting or its committees are not charged for use of the
space, at the end of the year the series donated $337 to Mount Toby. A summary of
the concert series finances follows:
6,283.80
Gate receipts for the concerts
5,706.02 Given to the performers (90.8 %)
577.78 Amount we kept from the gate receipts (9.2
%)
210.50 Donations (for refreshments, etc)
215.22 Expenses directly related to concerts
(flyers, etc)
235.28 Expenses for equipment, etc
337.78 Given to MtToby to close the books