Emerging

Fully vaccinated, we are gradually emerging from our cocoon.  

We have begun booking gigs, all outdoors for now.  We’ll be at The colony in Woodstock on Saturday May 22 at 3:30-5pm.

Just before COVID, I was beginning to assemble a jazz trio.  I have resumed my search, and I am thrilled to announce that Lou Pappas (bass), and Pete Levin (keys) are on board, (should I be able to actually line up a gig to make it worth their while).  I am only now reaching out to local drummers.  Will keep everyone posted if I am successful in getting a gig with a trio.  Otherwise, I continue with Bruce Balmer for both originals gigs, and “jazz” gigs.  Jazz shows with Bruce are always a blast, and the money stays “in house” (so to speak).  But Bruce is beginning to seek out shows doing his own original compositions, and I want to make sure he can devote all the focus he needs to his songs, so I will continue to pursue a more traditional ensemble for the jazz shows.

My teaching practice remains online. In addition to teaching voice, piano, ukulele, and guitar online,  I am now producing video tutorials, accessible through Patreon.com/lisamarkley.  $5 a month gets you access to all tutorials (voice, vocal harmony, guitar, use, etc…) as well as access to all other videos, new songs, in process and more.

I’ll be honest, my freelance teaching took a major hit this year.  I went from 20 students to 5 students.  I lost my school gigs.  Amazingly, unemployment opened up for those of us who are self-employed.  Without that, and my very small “rainy-day” fund, I would not be able to make ends meet.

Teaching voice in person is still incredibly risky, as we wait to see how the vaccines protect us from the variants.  Patreon, and my new tutorial series are one way I can begin to recover my income, at least a little.  I am infinitely grateful to my online students and my patrons, for joining me as I venture into this brave new world.

I am posting little one-minute videos to Tik-Tok, you can find me there tiktok.com @mizmarkley

I am also sharing videos on my YouTube channel YouTube.com/mizmarkley

I am also uploading videos to instagram (and their IGTV platform) instagram.com @mizmarkley

Bruce and I continue our Thursday night presence on the Facebook live stream (every Thursday 8:30pm EDT) Facebook.com/lisamarkley

Finally, I am participating in “RealWomenRealSongs” this year, writing a song a week from a prompt.  It is kicking my butt for sure.

Please consider signing up here on my website e-mail list.  I promise not to slam you with constant e-mails.  But it seems e-mail is the best and most consistent way to reach our audience these days, and I am phasing out a bit of my Facebook presence, as it seems nothing is getting through there.