Do you have a guest room that often sits empty? Do you enjoy well-educated, articulate house guests from across the country and the world? Do you like Classical music? Would you like to get the ‘inside scoop’ about performing from a professional musician? If your answer to any of these questions is ‘yes’, then we invite you to consider joining the growing number of EMV supporters who house visiting guest musicians.
EMV brings the lower mainland the highest level of music-making, and increasingly, we are producing these concerts here in Vancouver using musicians from all over our region. You can help us enormously by hosting a visiting musician in your home. The only requirement is a private room for the musician to sleep in (a private bathroom is a bonus but not a necessity).
If you are interested in possibly joining the hosting program, we ask you to take a brief on-line survey that will help us place appropriate musicians with you. In the fall, winter and spring we will email a list of dates for the next few months, and the hosts will indicate which dates they might be available. As we approach each concert series, we will get in touch with the hosts who previously indicated their availability and ask if their schedule still permits hosting. If for any reason it is not convenient, it is just fine for you to tell us “not this time.” We promise we will keep asking!
We ask only that you provide a place to sleep; some hosts also offer breakfast, but the guest musicians know this is not a requirement. Use of the kitchen and a little fridge space can also be a great help to the musicians, but is also not necessary. Hosts do not need to provide transportation, and if you live in an outlying area, the musician we place with you will definitely have a car or will have rides to/from other musicians in the area.
Lengths of stay vary from 1 night to 5 nights (the average is about 3 nights) – the host tells us what they are comfortable with, and we place musicians with them accordingly. Some hosts ‘test the waters’ by just hosting one or two nights to see how they like the experience. Usually once they get to know the musician, they extend the stay in future trips.
After the stay, we will be in touch to thank you and ask if you have any feedback – we definitely want to make sure the musician was both a good guest and a good fit for the host; if not, we will make note of it and not place that musician with that host (or perhaps not at all!) again. We try to get to know our hosts so that we can make good musician matches.
A wonderful aspect of this program is that it lets you get to know our guest musicians, some of whom come from all over the world. One of our hosts has said, “I love all the musicians you send me – they are all intelligent, well-spoken, wonderful people who are a delight to have in the home.” Lasting friendships have developed quickly in many instances and ultimately, both audience and musicians enjoy the music more when we have personal connections with those on the ‘other side’ of the podium.
For more information, and any questions please contact us at:
specialprojects@earlymusic.bc.ca
604.732.1610 extension 2004
Fill out our EMV HOUSING SURVEY (online form), to be entered into our database for host families!