UPCOMING AUDITIONS

Its time for the Gary Musick Company's 2007 cruise ship and industrial auditions! We are expanding our audition tour to include some new locations this year. With the addition of 4 new ships from Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), we will be casting for many new positions this year. There will also be several new shows produced for Celebrity Cruise Lines and NCL ships, so many of our cast members will have the opportunity to be involved in the creative process of brand new shows! Here is a link to the page on our website with the audition information for upcoming dates in London, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto.

http://www.garymusick.com/auditions.htm

If you are a current GMC cast member with friends who would like to audition, please have your friends check out the audition information. We would love to see them at one of our locations. If you have never auditioned for us, we look forward to having you share your talents with our team. If auditioning in person is not feasible, there is also information on the website regarding taped submissions.

Hope to see you at one of our auditions!

NEW YEAR

Well, 2007 is almost over, and it has been quite a year for the Gary Musick Company. There is much to celebrate, and even more to anticipate! This has been a year for accepting difficult challenges and learning through new experiences. It has been a year filled with great successes and more than a few disappointments...realized visions and sometimes illusive goals. 2007 promises another opportunity to reach all of those goals! We are so thankful for all the talented performers, musicians, artists, designers, carpenters, arrangers, painters, technicians, producers, production support personnel, and all the others who have contributed to our success this year. And we especially thank our clients who have given us the opportunity to create relationships that support literally hundreds of careers of our employees and associates. Without you, our lives would be very different. We at the Gary Musick Company look forward to 2007 with anticipation, energy, and enthusiasm for all the new challenges and opportunities that 2007 will bring!

Happy New Year!

Gary

New Blog features

Hey bloggers! We added a couple of new features to our blog today. Take a look at the map and digital counter in the upper right corner of our blog home page. The counter keeps track of the number of visits we've had, and the map shows the location of our friends who've checked out our blog. With all of the cruise ships we have around the world, the map should be a pretty interesting indication of where in the world our friends and associates might be at any given time. A big thanks to my friend Brandon Scott Thomas for helping with these techie add-ons!

Back to work

Its back to work tomorrow! We all enjoyed the Christmas break, but now its time to go into high gear with the planning and execution of some upcoming projects that are right around the corner. We have major shows and creative projects in Dallas, San Diego, Las Vegas, Cancun, Louisville, and Nashville in the next few weeks. We're really excited about all the new projects for 2007, and we're looking forward to reconnecting with all of our clients, performers, and vendors in the new year. We have cruise ship auditions in London next week, with more auditions in Boston, Chicago, and Toronto on weekends during January. Check out our website for complete details on auditions (http://www.garymusick.com/)

While scrambling for a couple of last minute gifts on Christmas eve, I ran into a former GMC associate. Eric Wyse worked as a staff video producer for our company back in the mid-90's. Since his time with us, he has established a very successful recording company with literally hundreds of CD's produced for the gift and specialty market. Eric is a super-talented producer, musician, recording artist, and writer, and has excelled in each of those areas. He has an exciting new hymnal project called "This is My Story, This is My Song" that is about to be released in Family Christian Bookstores. Congratulations on the new release! Great to see you, Eric!

Christmas Day

Today was Christmas, and what a special day it was! My family spent the morning opening presents and trying out all the new gadgets Santa brought. We had breakfast with our neighbors, the Dougherty's, then came home to clean up the chaos our house had become over the past 3 days. Then we had Christmas dinner with my wife's family, and a night of "High School Musical" movie watching tonight. My younger kids LOVE "High School Musical" - what an amazing entertainment phenonmenon. Here's a picture of my girls right after opening gifts this morning.

Last night I sent a Christmas email greeting to all of our performers out working on ships - I hope they got it! If you are one of the cast members who received that email, please enter a comment and let me know you were here. I will start including updates on ships, land based shows, new cruise ship shows, our upcoming projects with NCL and Celebrity, and general information you might find interesting. Hope you check out our blog often...we'd love to hear from you!

That's all for now. More in a couple of days!

Gary

Saturday, December 23, 2006

It is almost Christmas! All of our kids are home this weekend (we have 23, 20, and 15 year old daughters) and it is cool to see how well they get along...finally. Ellen and I often wondered if they would be buddies when they grew up, and now we can rejoice in the fact that they love each other in a big way. Now THAT's a Christmas gift to cherish!

Speaking of gifts, I got a new bluetooth earpiece for my phone today from my buddy David Holloway. What a cool gift! My wife always scolds me for talking on the phone in the car...maybe this will help me stay handsfree and be a little safer out there in the concrete jungle. Thanks, Dave - you are the best! It was also great seeing his family tonight. His parents, sisters, and extended family were in for the holidays. It was great seeing all that love in one place.

I think all the shopping is done. But I know I will be out tomorrow with all the other last minute dads still looking for that one extra thing. Not that its needed. Its just fun, I guess. Ellen and I are singing in church tomorrow night. I think this is the first time I've actually sung in public since Christmas last year. I hope I remember how!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

December 22, 2006

Just wanted to wish all of you a very happy holiday this week! We have so many friends and co-workers all over the world this Christmas season...many of them are unable to be with their families because of work. To all of our performers, thank you for your willingness to spend time away from your loved ones this Christmas. And thank you for sharing your talents that make the holidays a little brighter and more enjoyable for the thousands of guests you will entertain this week. All of us at GMC wish you warmth and hapiness where ever you may be. Merry Christmas!

Norwegian Jewel Visit

Its been a few days since my last post. Seems like holiday parties and end of the year work have put a squeeze on my time. I will try to do better!

We spent all day Sunday and Monday meeting with the entertainment staff of NCL. We also had a chance to board the Norwegian Jewel, a sister ship to the Norwegian Gem. The GEM is the ship we will be producing this fall. The JEWEL has a beautiful theater with great technical capabilities. Andy Davies, NCL's technical specialist for new builds, showed us around the ship and helped us with measurements and technical questions. We are getting excited about the 3 new shows we will be producing on the GEM this fall! Here are some pictures from the JEWEL...

Last night was a big night for GMC! We produced the William Morris Agency holiday open house event in Nashville. Over 400 music industry execs, artists, and agency employees attended this second annual event. The challenge was converting a parking deck into a festive, upscale party environment. Our team, along with our catering and lighting partners came together to create an awesome evening! No one could believe a parking deck could look so good. Contemporary Carolers and a jazz trio from Belmont University provided atmosphere entertainment. Many of the agency's top artists were in attendance at the 3 hour event. I will post some shots later today that tell the story. Special thanks to WMA's Paul Moore and Sue Ann Cordell for allowing us to create their event again this year!

Legends and legendary agencies

Hope you all had a great day! Today was one of those rainy fall/winter days that make you want to sleep really late. But not today...too much going on at GMC! We just confirmed that we're going to be working with the "Legends in Concert" production company on the entertainment for a couple of our favorite clients. "Legends in Concert" features top shelf Vegas-style celebrity impersonators who recreate the music and energy of the original artists' stage shows. What a great way to offer an evening of variety entertainment for a diverse corporate audience! Thanks to Gina and the folks at "LiC" for helping us put this together!

Tomorrow we load in for the William Morris Agency Nashville Open House. The William Morris Agency is one of the largest entertainment agencies in the world, and represents some of the music industry's biggest acts. For the second year, we're turning an ordinary parking deck into a contemporay club environment for 350 of Willy Mo's artists and guests. Can't wait to see who comes to the party on Thursday night. It should be one of Nashville's best music industry holiday events! Here's a shot of last year's party...can you believe this is a parking deck?! New pictures of this year's party will be posted on Friday.

Fond farewell

We had some bittersweet news today. Carmelo Roman, our artistic director, will be leaving us at the end of the week to persue a new opportunity in the retail merchandising and marketing world. Carmelo has been a member of our staff for the past 6 years, and has made so many wonderful contributions to the creative success of our projects. We will miss him, and we certainly wish him the very best in all his future endeavors. I sincerely hope our paths will cross again...good luck, Carmelo!

Today was a good day! The Tennessee Titans won (my wife, Ellen, was ecstatic!) and I got the house totally cleaned up and all the laundry done because I was too nervous to actually sit down and watch the game. So, that adds up to a "win-win" situation for the Titans...AND me!

Our church - Woodmont Christian Church - had its annual "Walk Through Bethlehem" event today. For the past 20 years or so, the congregation has transformed the majority of the church into an authentic Bethlehem street scene, complete with costume characters, shops, story tellers, live animals, activities for kids, and a really wonderful living nativity scene. My new friends, The Thomas's, brought their two daughters to experience it and they had a great time. Watching kids go through Bethlehem is a total joy...but they all want to see the baby Jesus before they go. Afterall, He IS the main attraction! Thanks to GMC's Jim Sheridan who made the angels' appearance a highlight again this year!

This is a busy week coming up. Several big events, and a lot of prep work for projects coming up in the spring. We are looking forward to one of the best years we've ever had...year 27 promises to be a good one!

Happy Anniversary to us!

I just received an email from Bert Hensley (our director of sales) reminding me that today is the 26th anniversary of the Gary Musick Company! It would only be fitting to pay tribute to the two founders of the company (originally called "Bookends, Inc.) - Jane Alsup and Kelly Sharber McBryde. Jane and Kelly launched Bookends, Inc. on Dec. 9, 1980, after leaving Opryland Productions, which they had also founded. Their vision inspired so many of us to cast our fortunes with this new, upstart company. I was actually a performer in the first major show produced by Bookends - it was for Williams Gerard Productions and Merle Norman Cosmetics. I remember thinking this was a very cool aspect of the entertainment industry that i really did not know existed before then. Entertainment for the corporate world...what a concept! After joining the Bookends staff as a production manager, I eventually became the GM when Kelly sold out her stake to Jane, and Jane subsequently left to join the Williams Gerard staff as a producer. Bookends ultimately became Gary Musick Productions, Inc. in 1986, and we were off and running. A special thanks goes to all the clients, performers, production personnel, writers, choreograhers, directors, designers, technicians, creative directors, and "cheerleaders" who've been responsible for our success over these past 26 years. A special thanks to Jonathan Yeaworth, who has been part of the company since 1987. His talents and genius (and patience with me) are endless! If you've worked with him, I know you can appreciate his presence on any show. I have the greatest respect for Jonathan and the rest of our staff . Thanks to all of you for sharing my vision. Here's to the next 25 years!

Nissan new car showcase

TGIF! Hope everyone had a great week. Today we worked with Nissan North America on the production of a new vehicle show for their employees. The employees-only show was at the Nashvile Convention Center. Bert Hensley produced the event for The Gary Musick Company - great job Bert! The show was a huge hit with attendees - and we got to see all of the Nissan 2007 models in one location at the same time. Sign me up for one of those new Nissan Maximas...great looking car! The Nissan communications staff members (Suzanne, Keith, and Mark) were terrific, too! We're looking forward to many more opportunities to work with the Nissan team!

A couple of days ago I mentioned that I felt like something great was about to happen..and it did...today! I can't share the news yet, but it was definitely a good day at the Gary Musick Company! We will tell all in a couple of days....

Today, we met with the William Morris Agency in Nashville to complete final plans for their annual open house event next week. Most of their artists will be in attendance to celebrate another record year in the music industry. We will post pictures from the event next week - it promises to be a very cool party! This is our second year to produce the agency's open house. Thanks to Paul Moore and Sue Ann Cordell for giving us the opportunity to work with the entertainment industry's number one booking agency!

Tomorrow, we begin the load in for a special new car showcase for Nissan North America. Nissan's national headquarters recently moved to Nashville, and we are working with them for the first time. This car show is for their own employees - this will be the first time many of their new employees will have seen the entire line of Nissan and Infiniti models in one place. It should be a great show! I will post pictures in a few days. That's it for now...have a fantastic week everyone!

David Patton (our general manager and all-around creative genius), Mindy Johnson (our incredible cruise ship production coordinator) and I met with Celebrity Cruises entertainment team in Miami yesterday and today...we had some great creative energy focused on new shows for two of Celebrity's ships. Looks like 2007 is going to be a great year for the cruise industry! Thanks to Michael, Leigh-Ann, and Gareth for spending so much quality time with us.

Did you ever have the feeling something great was just around the corner? I have had that strange sensation for the past couple of weeks. Thanks to our existing clients - and a lot of new ones, too - 2007 looks like it will be an exciting year for all of us at the Gary Musick Company. I will be telling you about several terrific new projects in the next few days...so stay tuned!

Second Generation

Please allow me to brag for a moment. This morning my 15-year old daughter, Eliza, auditioned for the Tennessee Midstate High School Orchestra...and made it! This is her 3rd year to be in the program. Tonight, my oldest daughter, Mary Catherine, performed in the fall dance concert at Middle Tennessee State University. She also just finished singing and dancing as "Laurie" in the university's production of "Oklahoma". This was her first musical theater experience (she is a ballet freak!) and I think it gave her a taste of life in theater. Ellen (my wife) and I are so proud of them, and we feel very blessed to have children who are interested in the arts. Our middle daughter, Anna, is not into the whole "music thing", but she is just as cool in a lot of other ways that make us so thankful.

Sam's Town Hits 1000th Performance

Our production show - "Three of a Kind" - celebrated the completion of 1000 performances at SAM's TOWN casino this year. GMC Producers Bert Hensley and David Patton helped write and produce 4 different contemporary country/rock revue shows that played in the main lobby of Sam's Town in Tunica, Mississippi. The show was a huge hit with casino patrons...the cast even had a fan club! We would like to thank Ted, Matt & Dana for all their support of this show and for the opportunity to help set the tone and atmosphere at the casino. Let's do it again!