Thank you for your interest in having Jeffery perform LIVE in your home.  House concerts have been happening for many years across the country and they’re a great way to experience an artist and his/her music.  Hearing Jeffery perform live at the piano in an intimate setting will be a treat for you and your guests. Jeffery has done house concerts all across Canada and looks forward to keeping these shows going from coast to coast to coast.

Here’s how house concerts work (some common questions/answers):

• Where does Jeffery do these shows?  Although Jeffery performs a lot of his house concerts across the Canadian prairies (& named his house concert series in honour of his prairie roots), these shows are something you can book ANYWHERE in Canada. He'll also consider house concert bookings in other parts of the world so don't be afraid to ask! When you send in your booking info (using the easy to fill in form on this page) be sure to mention WHEN you might be thinking you want to host. If you are in an area that Jeffery isn't yet booked to travel to, it might mean we need to set up a few additional shows in the area to make it work. But we will work with you to make it happen.


• Guests/Audience:  As the host/ess you will invite the guests (ie: audience) into your home for the concert.  25 is the smallest group that makes this work, and the largest group that works is about 40 (it depends on the size of the room you’ll do this in).  Jeffery has done house concerts for up to 60 but you need to have the space to do that!


• How do you seat the guests?:  You should have a room in your house that will fit the guests, seated.  Couches, chairs, kitchen chairs, floor, & cushions become the audience seating.  Bring up those random chairs from the basement!  In the summer, people have opted to do these in backyards, on a patio deck, etc.  This can work too. 


• Do I need a stage &/or sound system?: No - you don’t need either. Jeffery bring’s a digital piano and small PA/mic.  He plugs into an electrical outlet and that’s pretty much all that’s needed.  If you have a piano, and it’s tuned (!) – he’s happy to play that too.


• The Evening / The Performance:  Typical start time for the music is 8pm.  You usually invite guests to arrive after 7.  The music is in two 45 minute sets with a break between.  This allows for a decent end time and for socializing afterwards.


• What do guests bring?:  usually guests bring a drink and a snack – unless you’re into providing that yourself.  People mingle before the first set, at the break, and after the show.


• House concerts are ‘listening’ performances:  The audience has a chance to listen to the lyrics and really check out the music.  These are not ‘house parties’ where the musician sings in the corner while people talk and party.  You can easily have a CD player going and get the same result!  This is a concert in its most intimate form.  People won’t get up and move around/talk during the concert – and Jeffery is pretty good at setting that up at the start of the show.


• Creating your guest list:  guests are people you know:  friends, co-workers, family, neighbours, people from your sports team or choir, or whatever.  Sometimes hosts allow friends to invite friends etc to get a good group together.  Go through your e-mail list, address book (remember those!), go through your facebook + twitter friends – you’ll usually find that finding 30 people is pretty easy.


• What is the cost to host a concert??  There is actually no cost to you.  The house concert tradition sees guests pay their admission to the show like they would in any other venue.  Admission per person is $15.  You’ll make a commitment to having a min. # of guests at time of booking.  ie “I want to host a house concert, and I’ll have 30 guests”. When you invite people, you need to have them commit that they’re indeed attending and when they show up they pay their $15 bucks.  Usually hosts have a list and a little container/basket to put money in, right at the door – often it’s self-serve.   If there are ‘no shows’ (ie:  people who end up not attending) you cover the difference between the number you said would come, and the actual number.   Usually it’s the same and you are not out of pocket one penny.  Based on MUCH experience, this has proven to be the best way to prevent last minute cancellations.  You know how people can be!  If you’re really organized you can get people to pay in advance.  I’ve seen this done a few times but that clearly takes more work.  That’s up to you.


• CDs and Merch stuff:  Jeffery brings CDs and other merch to sell if any of the guests would like to take some home with them