Strings Music Festival: Time for some rest
Ali Mignone/For Steamboat Today
The next performance at Strings Music Pavilion is BOSTYX Unplugged Featuring David Victor, formerly of Boston, at 7 p.m. Sept. 9. Tickets are available now.
Upcoming at Strings
• Friday, Sept. 9 — BOSTYX Unplugged (acoustic hits of Boston and Styx)
• Friday, Oct. 14 — Todo Mundo (world music)
• Friday, Nov. 4 — Mandy Harvey (jazz)
• Thursday, Dec. 22 — Riders In The Sky (Christmas the Cowboy Way)
• Friday, Dec. 23 — The Science of Santa (holiday family show)
• March 3 – Broadway's Next Hit Musical (improv musical comedy)
Tickets available at 970-879-5056 and stringsmusicfestival.com.
Right now, a mama moose and two calves are hanging out in the grass by my window. When the trio first arrived, the area was peppered with people trying to move quietly and keep a respectful distance, while still getting a reasonable photo on their cell phones.
It was like a super-slow flash mob. But now that the family has settled in for a rest — all three dozing on the lawn — all the people have gone away, leaving the moose to recuperate from their (remarkably successful) leaf-stripping efforts in peace.
The scene reminded me that Strings is in a short downtime right now. The busy, eight-week concert season is over, and the next show isn't for a few weeks. Though the off-season isn't really "off" — we'll have a show or two every month until next summer, and the full-time staff will hit the ground running in September to get summer 2017 programmed, contracted, housed, fund-raised and all the other silent details that go along with running a successful, non-profit music organization — it's definitely a slower schedule than the full sprint of the summer concert season.
In addition to catching up on some hiking and biking time, I have a few seasonal recollections that make me glad to be in resting mode right now.
• Full coffee cups resting on each of the following: piano, backstage electrical box, onstage amp. Stage manager saying bad words to coffee cup owners.
• Musicians wanting "just 10 more minutes" into my scheduled lunchtime, after having started 15 minutes late because of chatting.
• Anytime anybody wanted the Wi-Fi password to check Facebook when I was clearly in the middle of something else.
• The gaff tape running out, with only one more inch needed to finish my project.
• My laptop battery dying after I set up my desk-of-the-day too far away from the outlet for the cord to reach. (Don't judge — my brain capacity in the middle of the busy season makes this kind of problem seem complex and insurmountable.)
• Towels that didn't absorb brass instrument "condensation," but, instead, just smeared it around the stage in a slip-and-fall zone that was larger and less obvious than the original, shiny puddle.
• Forgetting my OSHA-approved tennis shoes and getting to unload a semi-trailer full of concert gear in flip-flops.
• Packing my gig bag with two black socks, two black shirts, no black pants.
• Hair ties that didn't … in the middle of a piano move in front of a full house.
Ahhhh, rest — feet up, with a glass of wine and a good book. That's where I'm headed for the next few days. This is my last column here until next summer, so thanks for reading. See you at BOSTYX in September.
Ali Mignone stage manages for Strings Music Festival, among other things. When she's not telling roadies and musicians what to do, you can find her hiking, biking or skiing around the Yampa Valley and blogging at thequirkyquill.com.