One of the goals of Frederick Acoustic Music Enterprise is to develop a performance space that would seat somewhere around 100-150 folks. That space should have good acoustics, good accessibility for both performers and audience, be somewhat centrally located in the county and be reasonably priced. We have set up a series of concerts – Celebration of Acoustic Music, or CAM – to help us explore a variety of spaces. Our first concert was held at Frederick Community College in the Jack B. Kussmal Theater. That is a great space and it met all of our requirements. But we continue to explore some other spaces as well.
Frederick Arts Council is helping to create “Sky Stage” in downtown Frederick. This is an open space, formerly a warehouse. We are partnering with FAC to do several CAM shows there. The first one is coming up in September with an Open Mic the following week. We are excited about this space because it is a very creative venture and I am sure it will draw a lot of attention.
Another space we are experimenting with is the Unitarian Universalist Church on Elmer Derr Rd, just south of Frederick. We have been promoting their open mics and felt that the space would be a good one for concerts. It is a beautiful, open space with great parking and easy access. We will have a concert there in November.
A third space with which we are working is FSK Mall. This space is big and open, with easy access. It also has a perpetually changing crowd of potential audience members. We will have a holiday concert there in December.
This is to be a year of experimenting and that is what we are doing. We want to determine the best possible location for a more permanent space for us. We also need to determine what the requirements of such a space need to be. Your attendance at these events and your review of the space and performers will be most helpful.
We are also looking for teams of people to produce these concerts. We need coordinators, talent search folks, technical expertise and folks to do promotion. Some of the teams already have folks, others are missing some. If you would like to be part of a team let me know (rickhill@ricksfolk.com).
Providing great acoustic music is one of our primary focuses and these concerts are a step towards establishing ourselves as a resource for the County. I hope that you will support our efforts!