This is the third of a four-part series running through July about the ways that artists make a living from their work.
BY PAT PATERA
Musical talent soloists, bands and orchestras abounds in the
Truckee Meadows. And the means those musicians employ to make a living are as varied as their styles.
Jazz singer Cherie Shipley books her own gigs. A family friend works the phones to book duet- turned-quartet Shanti Shanti. And Reno Jazz
Orchestra tackles grant writing with all the strategy of a battle master.
Shipley has worked vocally as a jazz singer and had formed several bands disco, country and variety. "In a small market like Reno, one must do a variety of things," she says. She currently sings jazz on
Sundays at Roxie in the Eldorado and is booked at Genoa's upcoming
Concert in the Park.
And she continues to wear a variety of hats, including operation of Lake Tahoe Entertainment, a booking agency she bought five years ago.
When a friend decided to sell the company, Shipley saw it as a good fit because she knows the ropes of the scene and knows how to book performers.
Individual singers and musicians earn $200 to $300 when performing at weddings and corporate events, says Shipley, while club and casino gigs pay closer to $100. And a band might pull in just $50 to $100 per performer for a night's work.
"You have to really like what you're doing," she says. "Talent is misunderstood. People say, 'What you do is so easy.' We aren't playing an instrument you hold. You are the instrument."
Wedding singers are the bread-and-butter bookings at her agency, with the high season running June through October. Most couples book both a soloist for the ceremony and a band for the reception.
Unusual requests include calls for impersonators, but it's tough, she says, "because people don't want to pay the money for someone good."
The most unusual request she's fielded came from a television HBO special, "Cat House." The producer wanted musicians to play in a musical episode filmed in Virginia City.
"That," she says, "was an experience they didn't forget."
Meanwhile, singers Shanti Shanti perform locally at events such as Arts in Bloom and Artown. Sales of CDs boost the take.
Andrea Forman sings with sister Sara, brother Micah and father, Robert. An unusual act, the girls at ages 7 and 9 were spontaneously gifted with the ability to chant ancient Sanskrit.
They possessed an innate skill to read, write and translate Sanskrit. "We developed a craving to know it," Forman recalls.
Their father, already employed as a music producer, got things rolling for the girls, who first performed at parties when just 12 and 15.
Their first public performance, at ages 15 and 18, was at the
Conference for Astrology in San Diego.
Soon, the group was booked at 56 concerts a year and made a living at it. But an illness in the family slowed the group to half that workload. And gave Andrea and Sara, with degrees in archeology and business respectively, a respite from touring to pursue other interests.
"I most enjoy interaction with the audience and touching people's lives," says Andrea Forman. "But the travel is exhausting."
Business partner and family friend Joe Timmins works the phone to book the group, calling festivals and radio shows. Word of mouth has always been the best source of bookings for the group, but Shanti Shanti also maintains a presence on MySpace and YouTube.
"We do really well with people looking to improve their lives, or reduce stress," says Forman. "But we don't do well at a bar or pub, where people go to escape life stresses."
While Shanti Shanti is not a Christian band, the music also plays well in that market, she adds. "But it's hard to get on TV and radio shows because they think we're religious. Once they hear the music, it's fine."
The group also sells CDs from its Web site shantishanti.com along with a book, "Dreaming in Real Time, the Shanti Shanti Story."
Forman says her group's future success depends on marketing. "If interest in spirituality goes up, I see talk show bookings. But I don't have expectations," she says.
And then, upon reflection, amends: "Only gracious expectations."
The 17-member Reno Jazz Orchestra, meanwhile, demonstrates that big bands need big bucks in support.
The orchestra recently performed at Red White & Tahoe Blue in Incline Village and is booked July 30 at Artown.
Typical of the jazz players, Music Director Chuck Reider devoted 15 years to playing with casino orchestras at area showrooms, popular in the 1970s.
"The basis of this group was when that business ended and casino orchestra musicians turned elsewhere," he says. The orchestra was created in 1997.
Now, after working 15 years at a day job with the state, he finds a continuing personal challenge in working a fulltime job while playing jazz on the side a story for almost all the orchestra's members.
The musicians find additional work up to 20 bookings a year with the symphony and the university, says Reider, as well as the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Reno Philharmonic, and Nevada Opera.
"Put them all together and it's attractive for musicians to stay in town," he says.
But to support Reno Jazz Orchestra, Reider sharpens his pen. Grants come from E.L. Cord Foundation, Nevada Arts Council, and city governments in Reno and Carson City.
"We need to focus more on corporations," he adds. "Finding the money is always a challenge. We have to be creative."
For instance, the grant to pay musicians for the July 30 show at Wingfield Park covers only the orchestra. The question remains: How to pay for a guest artist?
Despite the economic slump, the grants continue to flow, says Reider.
"But we may not see that six months from now," he says. "June was a bloodbath in the markets, so foundations may not have so much to give."
The key to successful grant writing, he says, is a mix-and-match approach that brings funding from several sources. "It's like pieces of a puzzle. For example, when the Nevada Arts Council evaluates requests it's good if others are chipping in."
Reider isn't paid for his work chasing down grants. The rewards, he says, come from playing music that's exciting and fun, from choosing the music and spending time with the guys in the orchestra.
"We just have a blast," he says.
