BRING THE CHARLESTON SYMPHONY INTO YOUR HOME – LITERALLY!

The CSO is looking for generous hosts to provide rooms for our visiting guest musicians.

• Get to know some of the wonderful musicians that come to Charleston to bring you great music.
• Host only when it is convenient for you, and there is no commitment to the hosting program.
• The CSO brings over 250 guest musicians to the stage through the season, every year.
• All you need to provide is a private bedroom and a love of music!
• In total, your generosity helps to provide nearly 1,000 nights of housing required for these musicians to perform with the orchestra each season.

“The Musician Host program has had an incredibly significant impact on the artistic quality of the musicians we can bring to Charleston. I hope you will become a part of the hosting family.” – Yuriy Bekker, Artistic Director

We hope you will consider joining the many CSO hosts who already love the experience of having guest musicians in their homes. For more information on this program, please read the following letter. You can also sign up now by clicking the button below!

Dear CSO Supporter,

Do you have a guest room that often sits empty? Do you enjoy well-educated, articulate houseguests from across the country and the world? Do you like Classical music or would you like to learn more about it? Would you like to get the ‘inside scoop’ about performing from a professional musician? If your answer to any of these questions is ‘yes’, then I invite you to consider joining the many CSO supporters who house visiting guest musicians.

The CSO brings the Lowcountry the highest level of music-making, not only in the concert hall, but in our schools, places of worship, and civic functions. You can help the CSO bring the highest quality musicians to Charleston to augment our 24 full-time resident musicians by hosting a visiting musician in your home. The only requirement is a private room for the musician to sleep in.

If you are interested in joining the hosting program, you will start by taking a brief online survey that will help me place musicians with you appropriately. In the fall and winter, I will email a list of dates for the next few months, and the hosts will indicate which dates they might be available. As we approach each concert series, I will get in touch with the hosts who previously indicated their availability and ask if your schedule still permits hosting. If for any reason it is not convenient, it is just fine for you to tell me “not this time.” I promise I will keep asking! (As I have told many of my hosts, I am happy to ask you 20 times and have you say ‘yes’ just once.) If you generally don’t know your schedule in advance you can indicate that as well, and I will just contact you as I have need.

We ask only that you provide a place to sleep; some hosts also offer breakfast, but the guest musicians know this is not a requirement. Use of the kitchen and a little fridge space can also be a great help to the musicians but is also not a requirement. Hosts do not need to provide transportation, and if you live in an outlying area, the musician I place with you will definitely have a car or will have rides set up with other musicians in the area, but I generally try to place all musicians without cars on the Peninsula.

Lengths of stay vary from 1 night to 5 nights (the average is about 3 nights) – the host tells me what they are comfortable with, and I place musicians with them accordingly. Some hosts ‘test the waters’ by just hosting one or two nights to see how they like the experience. Usually once they get to know the musician, they extend the stay in future trips.

After the stay, I will be in touch to thank you and ask if you have any feedback – we definitely want to make sure the musician was both a good guest and a good fit for the host; if not, I will make note of it and not place that musician with that host (or perhaps not at all!) again. And I try to get to know my hosts so that I can make good musician matches.

A wonderful aspect of this program is that it lets you get to know our guest musicians personally, some of whom come from all around the Southeast for a majority of our concerts. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard from hosts how delighted they were with their guests; some musicians will play mini-concerts in the evenings for the host family and friends, some will cook for/with their hosts, etc. As one host said, “I love all the musicians you send me – they are all intelligent, well-spoken, wonderful people who are a delight to have in the home.” Lasting friendships have developed quickly in many instances. And ultimately, both audience and musicians enjoy the music more when we have personal connections with those on the other side of the podium.

Time and again, the ‘clincher’ for me signing on the highest-caliber guest musicians has been my ability to provide them with free housing while in Charleston so that they can keep more of their paycheck. Some hosts have also housed conductors and soloists, saving the CSO direct housing costs. This program has had an extremely significant and direct positive impact on the artistic product the CSO has been able to put on stage.

I often tell people I have the easiest Personnel Manager job in the business, as getting people to come to such a beautiful city as Charleston is pretty easy. When I can add in a home-stay with a wonderful CSO supporter, it is hard for anyone to say ‘no’! I do hope you will consider joining the Musician Host program.

Thank you for your consideration, and please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have.

Sincerely,