TransGender-Non Binary Orchestra Concerts

Come see and hear us May 20 2023 at Lilac House Farm in Weston MA. Details: https://nonconformistsorchestra.com/home

I'm Bunny. I'm a transgender violinist and conductor. There has never been an orchestra that features transgender musicians. Now there will be with your help. This new orchestra will feature and encourage musicians who have historically had less opportunities to excel in the orchestral world including LGBTQ+, women, and minority professional musicians such as black and brown people.

The first few concerts will be a core of musicians...mostly strings, but possibly including a keyboard instrument and drums. For subsequent concerts we'll add the rest of the traditional orchestral instruments and clarinets, french horns, trombones and trumpets, more drums, oboe, bassoon and guitar.

We will feature music written by transgender composers, since part of our mission, as well as music by well known gay composers like Tchaikowsky, Bernstein and Barber and lots of contemporary trans and LGBTQ+ composers.

Our concerts will be fun and really colorful and importantly will give opportunities without discrimination to trans and gender fluid professional musicians!

Oh, and it won't just be 'classical' music either! We'll play Classical, romantic, baroque, impressionist, Jazz, Pop, Hip hop, Avant grade & Electronic music programs!

WHY DO WE NEED TO RAISE SO MUCH DOUGH?

To get the best trans musicians on board, Trans Orchestra needs to pay at minimum, the American Federation of Musicians wage scales which include expenses, wages and a pension contribution.

If musicians know we have the money ‘in the bank’, and they have a signed union contract, they will trust that we will pay what we have promised them!

The idea isn’t to put on a single blow out event, but rather to start an organization that will have a bright future for the musicians who perform the concerts. That’s why in this first stage of fundraising, I’m aiming to raise enough $ to fund a minimum of 3 concerts.

The money we raise not only guarantees musicians’ payrolls for 3 concerts.

It also covers a projected amount for the following ‘line items’. An in depth explanation is provided for each line item. It also allows for the continued existence of our concerts with the Seed Money line item that provides some of the support for our next fundraising event which you can bet will be a really fun event for you.

Cost of processing your donation (a little over 3%)

arranger(s)

Arrangements (purchasing/rental)

Venue (DR & C)

Equipment (tbd folders, PA & recording)

Musicians’ Costume costs

Transportation

marketing/advertising

Management

Fundraising

Adult beverages and snacks for our supporters’ After Party

Seed money for our NEXT FUNDRAISING CYCLE

If you’ve ever opened a concert program there was probably an explanation somewhere in there about the fact that ticket sales only covers a small percentage of the cost of producing professional concerts that are REALLY GOOD entertainment! The rest comes from individual and sometimes corporate supporters. Other support sometimes comes from grants from organizations but we have to prove ourselves as a viable performance organization before grantmakers will gift us with a few dollars.

Is this all we need?

Well, NO. This first fundraiser will only get us the required amount for our FIRST CONCERT. The idea is to raise enough for a cycle or series of 3 concerts. A second and third fundraiser will be set up before this one is even finished, so they overlap! …and…

As soon as we have the amounts we need to achieve the highest likelihood of success in our first three concerts, we will also have established the beginnings of a staff that will work to begin the next and larger round of fundraising…larger because the size of the group onstage will be larger…and the sound will be more exciting and BIGGER. AND we expect more and more people to stampede the box office meaning we’ll need a bigger (and no doubt more expensive) venue to stage our concerts in!

If I can’t make the concert, can I watch it on a stream online?

If you have either paid for a ticket or made a contribution, you will get a link to watch the whole concert.

If you contribute a little extra, you can watch the preconcert speech and attend the online party, too!

If you would like to learn more about this project, please visit our temporary page https://shilakowskyarts.com/bunnys-and-the-non-conformists