DMGS3 Performers FAQ

What’s a “Spring Studio Showcase”?

The David M. Glas­gow Spring Stu­dio Show­case (DMGS³) is an annu­al oppor­tu­ni­ty for my stu­dents to gath­er togeth­er and show off the progress they’ve made over the past year.  Fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends are encour­aged and wel­comed to attend—attendance is free, though I do grate­ful­ly accept dona­tions to help off­set the more than $3000 it takes to pay the band and tech­ni­cians who help make the day mag­i­cal!

When is this year’s DMGS³?

Where is this year’s DMGS³?

DMGS³ 2025, as in pre­vi­ous years, will be held at the UUCV Meet­ing House in Boil­ing Springs.

What do I need to do between now and then?

1. Please be sure you’ve com­plet­ed a Plan­ning Form that gives me bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion, expect­ed guest count, and oth­er infor­ma­tion.
2. I’d also appre­ci­ate par­ents and fam­i­ly mem­bers who are will­ing to vol­un­teer for a few behind-the-scenes tasks to help the day go smooth­ly.  A list of avail­able tasks and sign up for what­ev­er inter­ests you (includ­ing a wild-card “tell me how I can help” slot) is avail­able at Signup.com.

Are there special rehearsals for the DMGS³?

Kin­da.  There will be short rehearsals ear­li­er in the day on the day of the Show­case, so singers can run their pieces with the band before the audi­ence arrives.  Please take note of the fol­low­ing:

• You need not wear your actu­al “show­case out­fit” for the “dress rehearsal,” though I do rec­om­mend you wear the shoes you plan to wear, just so you don’t have any sur­pris­es when it comes to mobil­i­ty or breath­ing!
• The “dress rehearsal” sched­ule does not cor­re­spond to “per­for­mance order” for the show­case itself.  Instead, this order is deter­mined by a num­ber of fac­tors, includ­ing stu­dents’ trav­el dis­tance to the venue, band and ensem­ble com­bi­na­tions, oth­er respon­si­bil­i­ties on the day, etc.
• Once you’ve had a “dress rehearsal” run of each of your pieces, you’re free to hang out or to leave the build­ing for lunch, sight­see­ing, or what­ev­er.  Just please be back in the Sanc­tu­ary by 12:50 PM for the group pho­to!

What should I wear?  What’s the decorum at this event?

The DMGS³ is about hav­ing fun and shar­ing the fruits of our labors with an appre­cia­tive audi­ence.  Some stu­dents enjoy dress­ing up and “mak­ing an event of it”; oth­ers would feel awk­ward and self-con­scious if they felt they had to wear cloth­ing that’s out­side their usu­al com­fort zone.  I will be wear­ing my trade­mark blaz­er-and-jeans com­bi­na­tion; I encour­age stu­dents and audi­ence mem­bers alike to be com­fort­able and enjoy the event!

In some stu­dios, stu­dents are expect­ed to pre­pare a spo­ken intro­duc­tion for each piece they per­form.  While I may request this of stu­dents who are prepar­ing to enter col­lege per­for­mance pro­grams, I usu­al­ly include nec­es­sary pro­gram notes in print form.  This allows for a more stream­lined event and takes some stress off my young per­form­ers!

May I record the performance?

I ask that you NOT try to record the per­for­mance in any form—video or audio.  I con­tract pro­fes­sion­al audio and video engi­neers to cre­ate neat­ly pro­duced videos of every stu­dent per­for­mance, so that friends and fam­i­ly can enjoy the expe­ri­ence live rather than through their smart­phones!  These pro­fes­sion­al video clips will be avail­able on my web­site (Teach­ing → Spring Stu­dio Show­case) with­in a few weeks after the event, and I’ll con­tact each per­former with share­able links as soon as they’re ready!

Other than performing, what should students be prepared to do?

In order to keep things flow­ing smooth­ly, each stu­dent will have an assigned seat in the front row(s) of the space—students should look for their names when they arrive.  As the audi­ence applauds for the pri­or stu­dent, you can then move for­ward to the piano or micro­phone and get ready to amaze us!  After you’ve per­formed, you’re free to return to “your” seat, or sim­ply go back and sit with any fam­i­ly or friends who may have come to sup­port you!

Sorry.  You mentioned “snacks” earlier?

Yes, I did.  It’s become a tra­di­tion for enthu­si­as­tic and gen­er­ous par­ents to chan­nel (some of!) their ner­vous ener­gy into help­ing pro­vide refresh­ments for after the Show­case.  So if you have a killer brown­ie recipe that you’d like to show off—for some rea­son the taste of pow­dered lemon bars is deeply tied to my mem­o­ries of child­hood piano recitals—I eager­ly encour­age you to sign up to bring them!  (Just note that UUCV does not allow food con­tain­ing nuts in their facil­i­ty, so leave the wal­nuts out of your brown­ies!)

Goodness!  How on earth do you pay for all of this fabulousness?

I believe firm­ly that the val­ue of this expe­ri­ence to my stu­dents is worth my invest­ment. And I also feel very strong­ly that any­one who wants to enjoy this event should be able to attend, so I resist the idea of sell­ing tick­ets or charg­ing admis­sion. But many who have attend­ed past DMGS³ show­cas­es have enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly shared that they feel the event is worth pay­ing for.

If you would like to help me express my grat­i­tude to the many pro­fes­sion­als who help make this event amaz­ing, I would be very grate­ful for addi­tion­al con­tri­bu­tions above the min­i­mum per-fam­i­ly Sub­sidy fee. You can make addi­tion­al con­tri­bu­tions by cred­it card or Pay­Pal on this page.  What­ev­er gift you feel is appro­pri­ate will be grate­ful­ly received and dis­trib­uted among the many skilled folks who make this event amaz­ing!