Hi Friends:

Thank you for your generous and wonderful support of my Bach Suite project in the winter of 2009/2010! You all buoyed me at a time that I really needed support for my art, and I put your support to good work; the album has been very well-received, and the momentum helped me launch many other creative projects. 

In fact, now a Sundance-award winning filmmaker, Jesse Epstein, is making a full-length documentary about me and my guitar orchestra. She is focusing on the themes of art, community, working at what you love, and surviving as an artist. She and her colleague Paul Odgren have been following me and my orchestra (and my family) around for about six months. They have hundreds of hours of amazing footage, and have attracted the interest of the very talented Malcolm Pullinger who has edited and produced the character-driven documentaries -- FOLLOWING SEAN, and WINNEBAGO MAN. Correspondingly, Jesse has just launched the following campaign to fund hiring him as an editor. http://tinyurl.com/GuitarFilmKickstarter

I hope that you will check out the trailer- it contains some very funny and compelling views into my life as an artist- from European busker to guitar orchestra conductor to solo performer. And, if you're moved to help this film get made, thank you again. 

In addition, for you Bach fans, I am embedding a short concert video that Paul Odgren made of me performing this summer in Spain.

Yours truly,

Peter

WFCR's John Montanari previews the Bach 'Cello Suites for Archguitar CD today at the beginning of his program- you can listen on the radio at 88.5 FM or online at www.wfcr.org

Thanks, everyone, more coming soon....
Peter

Dear Friends:

Seventy hours to the Bach Birthday finish line! To celebrate, and to gently nudge a few more supporters onto the team, here are two excerpts from the recording. (They are rough mixes in MP3 format; the CD you are all supporting will have higher quality audio.) The first is the opening of the Prelude from Suite V. It fades out as the fugue section begins. The second is the exuberant Gigue which closes Suite III.

I want to thank everybody so much for their contributions. It has been deeply encouraging that my work means enough to people that they would help me in such a meaningful way. Every contribution up to the goal pays for the CD's production, packaging and manufacturing. Every contribution after that enables us to send promotional copies of the CD to radio stations around the world.

If you are still considering donating, please do it now. Contributions of all sizes help the project, and demonstrate to media companies the audience support for my work. Plus, there are some excellent incentives to sweeten the deal.

Again, when the project closes Sunday at midnight, I will send a "backers only" invitation to a reception after the April 3rd concert. (And I am thrilled to have backers coming to the concert from as far away as the Netherlands and Germany!)

With heartfelt thanks,
Peter

Greetings:

Big News: I have decided to include suite no. III in this first volume of Bach 'cello suites. Originally, I didn't want to promise doing half the project in one volume, but I have been so energized by the support and by the music that it has propelled me to add that brilliant, joyous suite.

We have 14 days to go with fundraising and are still going strong! We have just started promoting the April 3rd CD release concert at the Northampton Center for the Arts so we are hoping that we will pick up some more Kickstarter supporters in that process.

I have also posted a mock-up of the CD cover; I hope you like it. Thanks to you contributors we are having it professionally designed by Alexis Design and printed and packaged by a Massachusetts manufacturer. I will have a CD that looks as good as it sounds!

Soon we will send a "Backers only" email with an invitation and details about a private, post-concert VIP reception to which all Kickstarter contributors are invited. This is essentially an additional reward for anyone still on the fence...

Next week I am also going to try to post a little sneak preview of the record. It is coming along beautifully. I am so busy editing, but I want to keep you all abreast!

Warmly,
Peter

Dear Friends:

In 22 days 44 art-supporters contributed $2,516.00 to my Bach 'cello suites CD recording. I am truly awed and inspired. Every single contribution was a great boost to the project, to my psyche and a real testimonial to grass roots organizing in the arts. Honestly, who knew?! I want to say a special thank you to Wendy Collings of New Zealand- whose large gift on the first day gave the project tremendous intitial momentum, and to Nico Lingbeek of Holland- whose large gift yesterday pushed it squarely past the 100% mark.

Even though my goal was quickly met, the Kickstarter campaign remains in full force until Bach's birthday, March 21, 2010. Any additional support that the project receives before then means that I will raise more money than my target. In a nutshell, a little money over will enable Maddy to package up complimentary prints of the CD and mail them to public radio and classical music stations far and wide (your suggestions are welcome!), and a significant amount over will allow me to visit these stations and do live interviews which is essential to really promote the record. For those reasons, I deeply appreciate your assistance in keeping the project alive through networking. I will continue to offer updates and hope to put some more video up soon- giving a behind the scene look at my creative process.

Thank you again for your partnership, and I assure you that the music will not disappoint!

Yours truly,
Peter

Greetings:

We've added a great new reward! For any contribution of $75 or more, you will now also receive a signed, limited edition DVD of Buster Keaton's 1928 silent film masterpiece, Steamboat Bill, Jr., with Peter Blanchette's critically-acclaimed score. (Don't hesitate to go back and increase your pledge if you would like to get this lovely full-length DVD.)

We're two-thirds of the way to our goal and we know we can finish strong. Supporters, thank you again so much.

Warmly,
Maddy

Greetings: One week in and the project is 62% funded! Along with the invaluable support expressed through contributions to the Bach 'Cello Suites V&VI recording, I've also received some lovely personal messages of support through the www.archguitar.com site. Thank you so much to all who are backing this. It is a wonderful endorsement of my work, and I bring that energy with me into the studio everyday. To everyone else considering supporting, you will be in wonderful company. To all, please continue to spread the word through email and social networking. I need to meet the whole goal by Bach's Birthday, but the sooner the better. Warmly, Peter

Thanks so much everyone- we're more than a third of the way there after 24hrs. Very encouraging!
Peter

Thanks so much to the backers who brought our project up to 30% of the funding goal in less than 12 hours. Who are you? So far you are people I've known for years, people I've met in the last year and fans I have never met, from down the street, around town, across the US, Europe and the Southern Hemisphere. It is really inspiring and energizing to receive such affirmation! Please consider helping to make this project "go viral" by passing it on though facebook, email or blogs. Thanks again, and to those of you simply perusing this project, should you decide to join us, you will be in good company!

Thanks again,
Peter Blanchette