The best advice for planning organ recitals

​Have you planned your year yet? It's important that you do that early in advance so that you know the activities of your entire year and after one event don't have to think hard what to do next.

Although there is some charm in not knowing what comes up next and letting yourself be guided by your spontaneous feelings in the moment, I think it's a little dangerous for organists who are struggling to keep their sense of purpose alive.

Are you stuck in the rut? Do you need to jump-start your public performance efforts? 

Here's the most powerful way I know to do this:
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Set the dates, find someone accountable you can trust, and share your plan with them. Announcing your recitals publicly works like magic because you will have people counting on you and your will not want to let them down. Exchanging your plans with your organist colleagues and friends on social media is also wonderful because you can become someone else's accountable person.

Having at least 5 events planned in advance is crucial when people after one event ask you what are you up to next. And of course, you don't really have to play new music at every recital, like I do. It's OK to perform the same repertoire multiple times. The more times you play the same pieces, the stronger you will feel (up to a certain point, of course when you will become tired of old music and want to try something new). And no, you don't necessarily need to be a master virtuoso with lots of repertoire under your belt to do that.

To give you a feeling of my year, I'd like to share with you a list of my organ recitals in 2016 at my church (click "look for more" to expand the list until December).

By the way, this Saturday, I'm starting out with improvisational storytelling event for organ and dance. Together with me Vilnius University Kinetic Theater Troupe will improvise on the biblical story of "Creation of the World."

If you know a fascinating story, fairy tale, legend, myth and/or venue in your area that mind lend itself to organ improvisations, feel free to let me know.