Two weeks before the summer concert
Your end-of-term recital has sixty performers across two halves. The teachers send their pupils' pieces in the way each of them always has: a list in an email, a photo of a notebook page, a forwarded text from a parent. Half the pieces have no composer. Some say 'the Bach' or 'the one from grade two'. Nobody says how long anything lasts.
The person running the concert copies it all into a document, guesses at timings, and tries to avoid three drum kit changes in a row. The night before printing, a teacher adds four more pupils and two drop out. The programme goes to print with an 'Allegro by Anon' that is actually Haydn.
The information is scattered and the order has rules
A running order is a small puzzle with rules nobody wrote down: youngest performers early, no back-to-back kit changes, the harp in one place, the accompanist not playing for ten items in a row, siblings near each other for parents, a strong piece to close each half. Solving it by hand is fine once. Solving it again every time someone changes an entry is what burns the week.
- Piece details arrive in different formats and with gaps.
- Timings are guessed, so the concert runs long.
- Stage changes and accompanist needs are only visible in the head of the organiser.
- Late changes mean redoing the order and the printed programme by hand.
What the week costs
The organiser's time, obviously, usually a teacher or manager doing it on top of their job. A concert that overruns means tired children and parents who stop coming to the next one. Mistakes in the programme are small but noticed: a misspelt name matters a lot to a nine-year-old and their grandparents.
And each late change risks something slipping, like a pupil who is ready to play but was left off.
A sign-up that drafts the order
- Each concert gets a sign-up page for teachers, with a closing date.
- Teachers add each performer with the piece, composer, approximate length, instrument, accompanist needed, and anything the stage crew needs to know.
- Pieces pick up composer and title spellings from your own list of previous performances where possible, so 'the Bach' becomes a real title before it is printed.
- The running order is drafted by your rules: age bands, stage changes, piano lid and stool moves, accompanist rests, siblings together, and a target length for each half.
- The organiser drags items to adjust, and the tool shows the new timings and any rule the change breaks.
- The printed programme and a stage manager's running sheet are produced from the same order, so a late change updates both.
- Parents get the time their child is on, roughly, so they know when to arrive.
| Rule | Example | What the draft does |
|---|---|---|
| Youngest early | Under-eights in the first twenty minutes | Places them first |
| Fewer stage changes | Two drum kit items | Puts them together |
| Accompanist rest | No more than five in a row | Spreads accompanied items |
| Families | Siblings in the same half | Keeps them close |
| Target length | Each half about forty-five minutes | Warns when a half runs long |
The organiser always has the final say. The draft just does the arithmetic and remembers the rules.
Concert week, calmer
Teachers enter their performers once, in the same way, before the closing date. The organiser spends an hour on the order instead of an evening every night. Late changes take minutes, and the programme and running sheet agree with each other. Next year's recital starts with this year's list of pieces to hand.
Does this describe your concerts?
- Performer lists come in by email in different formats.
- Programmes have missing composers or wrong spellings.
- Concerts regularly overrun.
- Stage changes are planned by one person's memory.
- A late change means redoing the whole programme.