COMMUNITY FEEDBACK

Q/Comment Sylvia W....Chicago,IL.writes:

There are so few African American‘s and people of color in general performing in classical music.

You can imagine my shock and surprise to have logged onto your website more than a year ago to see that not only do you perform it

but as a composer you are truly blessed.

My question: As an African American parent of a 15 year old son who is aspiring towards wanting to become a concert pianist,

should I support and encourage his quest without giving mention that his career choice will face a lack of African American peer

support or interest?

How were you able to deal with this as a reality and simultaneously deal with the prejudice that I know you must’ve encountered

a lot of; affecting your opportunity just to be able to perform let alone to earn a living. If you choose not to post this in your

feedback –comment page on your site, I can understand but I certainly hope that you would. Thanks

A. Thank you for comments.

It’s always good to hear from my website viewers about various music related issues and certainly if you’ve been

viewing this site for over a year then your question most certainly deserves a posted response.

My response to your primary concern: “Should your support and encouragement give issue to his career aspirations

as a concert pianist encounter suffering for a lack of African American peer support and interest”? Contrary to popular

belief in certain specific social circles “Blacks” have always maintained a very viable presence in the Classical music

performing arts as opera singers, choral directors, orchestra conductors, composers and of course as solo artist performers

on piano. African American involvement in the classical music arts is not as remote as some people are led to believe.

Just look up “African Heritage in Classical Music” at your local library.

Offer as much support and encouragement as possible but I wouldn’t dwell on the negative aspects of his becoming one of the

best in this field because being the “best” is going to deliver its own set of challenges that he’s going to have to deal with. If he

has the kind of love, determination and resilience it’s going to take to pursue his dream then “a lack of support or interest or

prejudice coming from anybody” won’t make any difference anyway. He’ll be knocked down...yes; but it’s not going to stop him.

He’s going to get right back up and sit right back down at the piano and “play the hell out of it”!

As far as the “prejudice “aspect goes, I’ve encountered that from both sides of the tracks.

While growing up as an inner-city African American, I encountered prejudice from my own peer camp as a non-conformist.

It was felt that if I played any music at all on the piano it should have a beat to it and cause heads to bob and weave and feet to

pat the floor. Anything else was unacceptable and labeled appropriately with a racist connotation or sexually demeaning term.

On the lighter side of the tracks, my music found plenty of potential support but not without some barriers there as well.

There are some venues that still will not welcome an African American to deliver a high quality performance no matter what

the music at any price; mainly because they simply do not want to break with a tradition that has seemingly kept their business

patronage selectively, financially secure. What I do is target market the unbiased from both sides of the tracks and settle for that.

There’s an ol’ saying that my dad would quote from his 35 years as a Pullman porter for the railroad. “If you can’t count on

pleasing everybody..then count on pleasing everybody that counts!

Q/Comments :B.H...Joliet,IL Writes: Subject/Sylvia W..Chgo,IL

I think you dropped the ball on this one Boise!

As a single parent with 4 kids; I would want to be inclined to taking a

protective role in whatever I foresaw coming their way that might

prove either harmful or disruptive.

I strongly disagree with your general outlook & response on this issue

Boise.

By telling this lady that she should curtail telling her son the truth about

what he is most likely to face regarding something that may blindside

him financially, as well as emotionally would be doing him as well as

his career a disservice.

Tell him the truth and hammer it home!

If he loves it strong enough as you proclaim he should then he will

“stick it out” but this time he will have time to protect himself by seeking

alternatives to secure his financial future while still pursuing his

dream.

Q/comments:Carl B...Chicago,IL.Writes: Responding to Sylvia W.

I’m no big fan of classical music but even far less so of Hip-Hop and Rapp;

which I feel have stolen the creative minds of our young people in holding

onto the significant role and heritage African Americans played in such music

forms such as jazz ,soul and rhythm and Blues.

I’ve been playing tenor sax for over 30years with all types of bands and venues.

My advice to that 15 year old young man is: “Do what your heart tells you”.

No matter what you decide to do with your life your going to pay some kind of

a price no matter what you decide.

Just know that deep down in your heart that it’s the right thing to do.

Often times ; what you have in your heart is not always in sync with what’s

in your head.

The world is chock full of people who missed their calling in doing something

constructive and creative from the heart. They’ve sold out their “calling” for

thirty pieces of silver for the rest of their life by listening to what somebody

or something put in their head instead of listening to what was truly in their

heart.

If playing classical music is what you want to do as a major career move then do

It! Make sure that you love it enough from the heart because your going to need

that love as your greatest armor to combat all these “dream smashers” out here

that’ll fill your head with all the negatives and inroads of caution to get you to

second guess your initiatives in achieving what you want.

Last but not least. Don’t worry about whether or not African Americans will support

You playing classical music …there isn’t all that many supporting jazz anymore anyway.

If you love it well enough then you’ll be good enough for somebody to want to support

you playing it and they are going to be color blind doing it and those are the ones that

matter.

Q. Comment: Ingrid Z ....... Washington D.C writes:

…As a concert pianist as well as an event planner, I must take issue with the fact of your over emphasis of the term “quality” regarding your piano performance.
True that you are quite an accomplished pianist but your over emphasis of it throughout your website and associated links may be doing you more harm than good if you happen to be targeting the wrong buying market. The market you seem to be targeting (based upon what I see in your previous events concert calendar page) is your typical low-budget type event. I can fully understand why you may be target marketing these types of events because I’ve been there myself. They are more numerous and more plentiful to get. However, you’ll soon discover as I had that many of them won’t offer the kind of accommodations and support for your level of proficiency at the piano that you should be entitled to. That’s because “quality” usually takes a back seat to pricing for most of them. Ask yourself this question. How many have given you excellent reviews but as yet to call you back for a future performance ? This is what long established licensed booking agencies look at along with various upscale performance venues, major record labels and international music publications. Their interest should be yours as well. Not only who’s booking you but how many times they’ve done it. My advice: Focus most of your marketing efforts towards fortune 500 companies and overseas markets if you can get it. These markets are definitely “quality” oriented and much more supportive with a lot less bias as well. They may not be as numerous or plentiful but at least you won’t have to scale back your regular pricing with a bunch of promotions just to stay competitive with other pianists on low budget gigs that only play half as good as you do.
A Thank you for the advice Ingrid. I’m not going to pretend that since I either approve or make most of the decisions as to what goes on this site justifies me being in a position to declare that I’m “Mr. Right” and that I specialize in having the “right answer” to everything that goes on this website. However, I’m learning as I go along here and freely take the advice of person’s such as you freely pro or con because that’s all part of the learning process at any stage and at any age. I have to agree with some of what you are saying about focusing on perhaps the fortune 500 companies and overseas markets but I only partially agree with your assessment that low budget gigs are not concerned with quality only the bottom –line. I have performed for quite a variety of what you’ve described as “low-budget” gigs of which I find that offering a superior performance on a promotional offer is very advantageous all the way around (Please refer to our B.E.P.F Program: Business Entertainment Promotions Funding located on our Musicians Pricing’s page). Many of my clientele who’ve enjoyed my performance may not yet be in a position to readily be able to call me back for a repeat performance but that doesn’t mean they haven’t recommended my performance out to someone. I realize that there are some event planners out there that might be strictly bottom-line price oriented. In fact; I have a very good business relationship with one particular event planner that admitted that when she took the job of soliciting musicians for her client’s reception she was instructed to take the lowest possible offer regardless as to how they may have sounded as long as it was considered decent. She liked what I did well enough to allow the client to listen first before she made the selection, which is something a lot of event planners don’t do. The client chose my presentation even at the higher performance rate over who she originally had in mind and that’s how our business relationship started.

My point is, not all low budget oriented gigs are solicited by event planners or clientele looking to place quality on the back burner in favor of pricing.

Q Comment: Cheryl M....Chicago,IL. Writes:

Please post this review so that other members of our organization can read it regarding your New Years Eve

cocktail/reception piano performance at the Black Ensemble Theatre thursday.

...Absolutely "blow away" solo piano playing! It was fantastic! This was my first party at the Black Ensemble

Theatre and I really didn't know what to expect. The main show, the food, the guests, the dancers and other

musicians were just great...but your solo rendition of "Lush Life" to kick off the evening was superb.

I'm a pianist myself and I teach master classes in piano at Chicago's xxxxxxxxxxx if your performance sets

right with me you know;without question, your really very,very good. If your not signed to a major label then

you certainly should be in my opinion. Your treatment of both jazz standards and some of the classical rendition

of broadway and film scores are just too valuable of an asset to keep it on a low profile. To me; its a treasure!

These are songs that are timeless and to have them being performed the way you do them,especially for the

benefit of our young people in giving them an education to a musical world beyond just hip-hop and rap...makes

it a treasure.

Please keep me posted on other places where you perform so I can e-mail members of our organization to come

and offer you our support. Keep me posted

Thank You

A. Thank You very much for your review Cheryl. Its comforting to know that my music has made such a strong

positive impression. I will certainly keep you posted on performance dates and locations. Thanx much.

Q Comment: Gary S....Bloomington,IL. Writes:

Boise Queen is an absolute gentleman and the business aspects of his engagement were handled with great ease and trust.

His performance was perfect and he was wonderfully accommodating at our Christmas cocktail party in our home for about

200 guests for about three hours, keeping the music entertainment lively with many song variations. Everyone enjoyed his

fantastic talent and repertoire, and I received many, many compliments from our guests on his being there. While it was

generally intended to be ambient music, many guests gathered around for the fun of watching and listening to him play,

while at the same time others in the room were able to hold social conversations because his music was not overwhelming.

I cannot recommend Boise enough for anyone needing such fine music entertainment...and his price is very reasonable,

maybe even too reasonable for his great performance. I hope he will accept our invitation to return sometime. He is the best!

A. Thank you very much Gary.

Its gracious hosts such as yourself and Mrs S. that have opened their hearts

to the kind of music quality that you expect that is both entertaining and inspiring

which in turn; inspires me to deliver on those expectations

regarding my performance.

I will certainly be available for you and your guests anytime in the future! Thanks so much.

Q Comment: Stephanie L. .....Milwaukee,WI. Writes:

Hi Boise! Hope you will post this because I found it to be a very useful guide to remind yourself of

being in this business. Its a quote from an old music teacher and friend of mine just before he passed

away last year. He said:

"Sometimes in this business support at being the best and doing what you love can fashion

a sword that can cut both ways".

There will be plenty of those who will love what you do but will never consider you being

their best to gain their support simply because your not the one who they want doing it."

...And those who consider you the best but will never love what you do until you decide to

accept 30 pieces of silver to do anything and everything else they want you to do in its place."

ANS: Excellent quote Steph. ...and how so true it is! Thanks!

Q Comment: Stephanie L. ......Milwaukee,WI. Writes:

Just heard about your disappointment.....Just wanted you to know that I find your

music absolutely beautiful and anyone who doesn't want to support it probably

is in another category altogether. Certainly the issue is not the music itself.

I know that sometimes it seems God will use your efforts,aspirations ,dreams

and accomplishments to fertilize the tree bearing the fruits for someone else's

success....I know ! I've been there and back lots of times but don't discourage.

you've got a good thing here and people are benefiting from it and so will you.

Ans: Thanks Steph! Appreciate it!

Q Comment: Wayne R...Chicago,IL. writes:

If you can recall, I registered on your site last week applying for your "Musicians Registry"

I was impressed with how you were able to handle all of the spam and garbage that people

must be leaving on your online application forms. I say this because as a musician I had

exactly the same problem which forced me to discontinue using online forms and questionaires

on my own website about a year ago.

I hadn't thought of letting legitimate users of my website forms to place a phone call through

my voicemail letting me know their contact information after they click the questionaire through.

I think what you have is a brilliant idea of screening out these no-life oddballs that want to sit

up and hack into your site with a lot of garbage.

Can you e-mail me back to let me know how you are able to set up an anti-spam website procedure

to delete these hackers garbage within 15 minutes without loosing information from legitimate

applicants? I would appreciate it...Thanx!

Ans: Thanks Wayne: There is a company we partner with that does that for us for a small monthly

fee. I will e-mail you their contact info. When we first started using web forms it was a problem

However, we quickly solved it as you can see. Everything that gets filled out on our online forms

quickly gets deleted if a phone call is not placed with specific information requested of the

applicant within 15 minutes. I agree with you that its too bad these low life ,no life hackers have

got nothing better to do with their time all day than try to destroy a good thing for a lot of people

who could benefit. The really sad part is ...WE ARE NOT CHARGING PEOPLE FOR MOST OF THE
BENEFITS THEY DERIVE OFF OF A SITE LIKE THIS! ITS A FREE MUSIC SITE!

Q Comment: Rhonda W...Atlantic City NJ

  Wanted to offer some constructive advice for your post:

I'm an event planner and I've been following your website for over a year now.

I've seen that you've made some very good site improvements and you've got

a pretty good visitor following.

What you might want to consider now on is getting your site to start generating

some kind of profit return for you. I don't see much of that happening here and

I know its got to be costing you a pretty penny to keep a site like this going with

very little revenue return.

Have you tried applying for a grant or non-profit 501c tax status?

Also, your music sample tracks are excellent but you might would want to

consider adding some sample tracks on your site that are a little more "low-key"

or more in tune with a typical ambient conversation social environment.

This is what most event planners are looking for when they sample a pianist as

a candidate for hire for an event.

I know you probably present music this way when you perform live at an event

but it might help to let potential customers know that when they sample your

music off your site.

A Thank you Rhonda for your comment and we appreciate you writing in.

    We do have some grant applications out there that are pending.

    As you know, applying for a grant is a long, laborious process with very

    stringent guidelines even in the best of economic times.

    As for the music sampling; there are a couple of video projects in the works

    that will be featured on this website within the not-too-distant-future that will

    address this issue. I think your points are well taken and might benefit also

    the other musicians we have in our registry.

Q Comment: Patricia L….Aurora, IL. Writes:

      …Just absolutely love your playing.

      It’s so refreshing to listen to somebody play that’s creative enough

      to be influenced by a lot of the jazz and classical music legends of the

      past and present and still being able to incorporate your own style

      and sound.   I especially love what you did with Leonard Bernstein’s

      “Somewhere”.

      I’ve visited a lot of websites presenting all types of local musicians

     particularly piano players and only a small number including yours;

     that I would say sounds anything close to professional quality that

      I would consider hire material for an event.

      The rest mostly sounds like students.

      The thing that’s most puzzling to me is despite all of your promotional

      price offers and professional sounding playing; I notice that your concert

      calendar page is never full…..How come?

A Thank you for your comment Patricia

      Three reasons for why you’re not seeing a full concert calendar page.

(1)    Although I am available to work with a live trio group or a singer

         which would initiate more bookings by demand; most of my

         performances have been as a solo pianist.

(2)    A lot of leads that I’ve acquired from potential customers has been to

         perform piano entertainment in facilities that either has no piano

        available or that the customer wants to cut costs by not paying a

        rental charge to the facility if a piano is available; thus requiring

        the pianist to perform on a standalone portable piano, which is

        something that I do not do. (This is discussed in great detail on our FAQ page)

(3)    Since I am available to perform up to 3000 miles from home most of the

         performance requests that come in are from professional event planners

       who are soliciting my price for events that are out of state.

        Once you factor in the out-of-pocket travel/lodging expense, my prices cannot

        compete with prices from other musicians available on the local market

        within proximity of a particular event. (This is the basis for the promotions that

               we have running).

As one musician once told me many years ago:

When I play I will need to be paid…but …to be paid is NOT why I play.

Q. Allen R. ....Naperville,IL. writes:

      "I've just opened a new business that will frequent customers wanting piano entertainment

       during our weekday wine tasting sessions and Sunday brunch schedules.

       I received your recent e-mail notification of having select business's benefit by your offering

       to play piano at either a free or reduced price rate in exchange for your advertised promotions

       funding by those select business's for customers that you've acquired that would want to hire

       you to play piano for their own event on one of those cost saving promotions.



       This sounds like it might be a pretty good deal.

       Could you send me a little more detailed information about it and include any customer references

       of business's you have that are either already in the program and/or recent customer's who

       benefited from this offer?

A.    Absolutely Allen!

       This is a program in which is the source of funding for many of the promotions we offer on our

       website. We encourage many business's like yours who anticipate having a frequent stream

       of events requiring piano entertainment to take advantage of this offer.

       This offer as you've been informed; is set up whereby the musician gets paid either at or near the

       amount of his regular performance fee by a donor business such as yours as long as there is a

       valid notorized signed contract that is presented to you from a customer who has hired that

       musician to play piano for his event for the promotional price advertised.

       The musician then agrees to perform (usually within 1-3 months) for your customers for a

       pre-selected date,time and location at the cost difference paid between his regular performance

       price and what your business funded him to carry the promotion for his customer.

       Keep in mind that all of this hinges on the fact that a "Grand piano" will be available at the event

       site. (No solo standalone keyboard) (No upright piano's) (No digital piano's).

       I will e-mail you your request and also mail you one of our brochures to your physical address.

Comment: Linda M....Charleston SC writes:

Glad to see you guys add an FAQ page to your site.

I was wondering when you would get around to doing something like that.

That FAQ page really helped me to resolve a lot of issues that I had visiting your site,

especially with some of the questions I had regarding your contract and booking processes.

Linda

A. Thank you for your comment Linda. We appreciate your feedback.

     We recently did this based on the number of people that e-mailed us

     with different topics of interest. We didn't want to crowd up our feedback

     page in answering each concern because there would not be room enough.

     We then decided that we had more than enough topics e-mailed in to create

     a FAQ page.

     It may not address every issue but we hope it will help people like yourself

     feel a little more comfortable with our website and what it has to offer;

     especially when it concerns booking or pricing.

Comment: Joe and Elizabeth K....Madison WI. writes:

Hi Boise

Elizabeth and I can't say or express enough about your piano playing for our reception Saturday.

Our guests just loved it. Your style of playing was not only entertaining but also you played at a level that uplifted the social atmosphere of our event without jeopardizing the conversation of our guests .

We've auditioned a lot of pianists before and this has been a real problem for us.

If the music was played at a level that supported our more conversational guests, in many instances it was played or presented in a dull, unentertaining fashion that didn't seem to do anything for the atmosphere to the event.

On the otherhand; if the music was entertaining as much as yours, then it would be too loud.

Your playing offered just the right balance/mix that we were looking for.

You sounded great and my wife and I will surely help you all that we can of getting the word out to many of our friends and associates that "your the man" to know if piano is the the way to go!

Thanx

Joe

A. Thank you very much Joe and Elizabeth for writing in and commenting on my performance.

I certainly look forward to serving you and whomever you recommend to Talent Aid Promotions

Entertainment in the future.

Comment: Miriam K..Barrington, IL writes:

I really don't have a question at this point I'm just writing to let you know how much my dad and I along with the rest of our NEW YEARS EVE party group that attended the Onion Pub and Brewery really enjoyed your band of entertainers Dec.31,2007. The singer..Laura Walls was just absolutely phenomenal as well as the Corky McClerkin trio. My dad is 72 years old and you guys kept him pumped up and on the dance floor all night long. Hats off to you guys you really know how to throw a party....Thanx!

A. Thank you Miriam. Its comments such as yours that keeps us "Pumped up" and on the bandwagon to succeed in doing the best we can in providing the best of the best in a highly competitve market like entertainment.

Q. Patricia M...Indianapolis,IN. writes:

Comments: My husband and I requested your "classic Live" cd to give to my mom on her 75th birthday . We listened to it ourselves before we sent it to her and we were completely at awe with what you did with Leonard Bernsteins "Somewhere" . The interplay between piano and orchestra I think was just fabulous . Its one of my favorite compositions by that composer . I can't see why anyone could help not to love what you've done with it from an arrangement and performance standpoint. Weve recently requested your office to send us another copy for ourselves and we'll be glad to pay for it because I know they told us only one free copy per request. We liked the entire cd but especially "Somewhere" . Are you planning on making any future cd's like this one ? If so; if there as enjoyable as this one, please let us know.

A. Thank you very much Patricia. Yes, there will be future works that I'm currently working on now as we speak that will feature classical or semi-classical works as well as motion picture soundtracks that will be arranged for both piano and orchestra and will be available on cd .

Q. Beverly A....Los Angeles Calif. writes:

Hi piano Q, just wanted to write to let you know that I support your view on not wanting to use a "keyboard" as a standalone solo piano instrument. I'm a pianist myself and I get requests to perform gigs all the time from clients that are looking for top notch pianists to play for their events but fail to book their event at a facility that has a decent piano available. The few gigs that I did where I did use a keyboard as a solo standalone instrument proved to be very disappointing for me and for the client. The client expected to hear the type of high quality pure natural sound like what they heard on my cd's where I used a real acoustic piano and when the keyboard that I used, failed to reproduce it "live"...well! devastation city. People have to get educated to the fact that if their shopping for a real pianist and not a keyboard player; a pianist is going to deliver the kind of quality sound and tonal lyricism in the music that you won't get from a keyboard. Besides, a keyboard makes a perfect accompanying instrument for either a singer or a band but not so well as a solo standalone. In my opinion people have to get educated to the fact that if their shopping for a pianist they should be shopping for a little more intracacies of creativity inherent within the music and the way its being performed. All too often I find that musician friends of mine that use a keyboard for almost everything, take issue of my not using a keyboard for a solo performance and wonder when I'll decide to jump on the bandwagon. I wind up telling many of them: "You don't play what I play and you don't play the way that I play". How would you like it if you bought a concert ticket to a Beethoven piano recital and the featured pianist showed up on stage with a keyboard. You'd probably go running to do door screaming refund before he ever sat down to play a note. Just thought I'd share this opinion with you from one pianist to another and to let you know that I applaud your professional stand on respecting your artform even though I know its probably costing you an awful lot of potential gigs out there.

A. Hooray! Bravo ! I couldn't have said it better myself . Yes Beverly everything you've said is absolutely rock bottom the truth and I'm not one to hide from the truth when it concerns the piano. Yes! Absolutely ! my refusing to perform solo standalone keyboard is at a very high cost . However, guess what ! The cost is "offset" sharpely whenever I run across a client who is an educated, well informed consumer that knows all too well the distinction between a regular piano and a keyboard and will not settle for second best . Thanks Beverly ! Your insight and opinion has made my day!

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Boise Queen, CEO,concert pianist: TALENT AID PROMOTIONS ENTERTAINMENT

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