Minstrel Booking

May was a pretty good month. We only held 2 regular shows plus an Open Stage. Paid attendance averaged 99.3, or 132.5 if we don't count the Open Stage. The figures for the past 12 months got a nice boost as well, because the disappointing month of May 2014 dropped off that calculation, resulting in an average paid attendance of 90.4 for regular shows (74.7 including Open Stages.) Look at the attached chart for the difference between May 2014 and May 2015. We were $384 in the black for May, $2018 in the black year-to-date, and $2132 in the black for the past 12 months.

I received and signed our contract with the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship for July 2015 through June 2016, with our rent rates unchanged from this past year. However, it does include our use of the Terrace Room to hold our Open Stages instead of the air-conditioned Meeting Room for the months of September through May for a rental savings of $141 per show for the 8 Open Stages in that time period, or $1128 over the course of the year.

The new Minstrel banner to replace the one inadvertently discarded by MUF's custodial staff at the beginning of the year was unveiled at Spring Getaway, and then to the Minstrel audience on our show of May 29. It is spectacular. Design was by Deborah Graham, and the actual sewing done by Beth Wilson (No relation to Barrett), who is a prominent person in the Fellowship. She told me it was about 130 hours of work. Both Deborah and Beth received thank-you letters from the Project. And Beth, and her husband Joe Urhane received free admission to the Minstrel for the rest of the year. (They are regular attendees.) Beth was compensated for cost of materials by MUF.

BMI has found the Minstrel. They are legally entitled to those royalties. I received call from a BMI rep, who informed me of our obligation. I agreed, and signed the contract. BMI is the other major Performance Rights Organization (PRO) in addition to ASCAP, with whom we've been under contract for about 4 years. Their purpose is to collect royalties from music presenters, and distribute them to the copyright holders of songs performed in the venues to the copyright holders of those songs. The cost to the Folk Project is about $250 per year from each PRO. The arrangement with BMI is exactly the same as that with ASCAP: They charge 0.8% of ticket revenue, essentially the price of one ticket for every 125 sold. There is a minimum yearly fee for each organization of $219 for ASCAP and $232 for BMI. The ASCAP fees from Minstrel alone totalled $219 for the four quarters of 2014. It is my opinion that Special Concerts and Internal Affairs (for the VDX show) are also obligated to pay those royalties. It is my opinion that Swingin' Tern is not required to pay those royalties, because the music they present is not included in the ASCAP or BMI catalogues of copyrighted songs.

New bookings since last month:

 Aug. 7, 2015: Sharon Goldman opening for David Massengill. Folk Project member and singer-songwriter

 Feb. 26, 2016: Diane Perry, Folk Project member. Headliner

 May 20, 2016: Joan & Joni, A tribute to Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell performed by songwriters Allison Shapira and Kipyn Martin with voices very much like those of their role models.

Highlights for June

 June 5: EastRiver Chinese Ensemble: A very different sort of act. Traditional Chinese music on authentic instruments performed by Beijing Conservatory-trained musicians.

 June 26: Toby Walker: Outstanding guitarist, including a multi-media presentation of his travels through the American South to find and learn from the old masters of the blues guitar.

Respectfully submitted:

Mike Agranoff

Program Chair

The Minstrel Acoustic Concert Series

Morristown, NJ 07960, USA