Beverly Vander Molen
Beverly is Ken's booking manager, traveling companion, sound person and visual navigator with Ken almost 155 days a year. Her background as a producer, music director and event planner, comes in handy for the various types of venues in which she finds herself now.
Although she is a trained organist, the sound board has become her instrument of choice.
To inquire about booking Ken Medema for an event, email bevvmolen@aol.com or call at (415)-637-4493
Ken Medema
. . . is a singer, songwriter, pianist, synthesist, storyteller and performer. Using a piano, a keyboard and percussion, his concerts are interactive and he has been called a “participation artist”.
His music encompasses styles all the way from his classical routes to jazz to contemporary and everything in between. Every concert includes audience participation by the telling of their stories on a selected theme for the occasion. Ken then improvises on the spot songs based on those stories for a totally unique and custom event—every time.
Early in Ken Medema’s life, music became a major component. “I started banging on the piano when I was five years old,” he says, “making up crazy little fantasies on my mom’s piano. When I was eight years old my parents got me a wonderful teacher who taught me the classics with Braille music and taught me to play by ear.” His teacher also taught him to improvise. “Every time I learned a piece my teacher would tell me, ‘Now you Improvise in that style.’ So, music became a second language.”
After graduating from high school Medema studied music therapy at Michigan State University in Lansing, where he concentrated
heavily on performance skills in piano and voice. He worked as a music therapist in Fort Wayne, Indiana, returned to Michigan State for a master’s degree (1969), then worked for four years as a music therapist at Essex County Hospital in New Jersey. It was while employed there that he began writing and performing his own songs. “I had a bunch of teenagers who were really hurting,” he says, “and I started writing songs about their lives. Then I thought, ‘Why don’t you start writing songs about your Christian life?’ So I started doing that, and people really responded.”
In 1973 Medema left his work as a therapist and began a career as a performing and recording artist. He recorded albums for Word and Shawnee Press, then in 1985 founded Brier Patch Music.
Brier Patch Music
. . . is an independent recording, publishing, and performance-booking company with headquarters in Grandville, Michigan. Brier Patch Music is named after Brer Rabbit’s home in the legendary Uncle Remus stories. “Brer Rabbit lived in a place not comfortable for anyone else,” Medema says, “and we decided to follow him there.” Brier Patch creates musical expressions that celebrate all aspects of the human experience, with an emphasis on spirituality and such universal concerns as peace, justice, and the environment. Today Medema performs in a variety of venues, from local congregations to charity fundraisers, to high school and university campuses, to denominational youth gatherings, to universally televised religious programs, to corporate conventions and annual assemblies of national organizations. Ken and his wife, Jane have been married since 1965 and live in the San Francisco Bay area of California. They have two married children, Aaron and Rachel and have four grandchildren.
I have been doing events since 1970, now at the rate of over 200 per year. I have worked in plenty of places where the sound was lousy, the piano was out of tune, the wiring blew out when the lights went on, or there was no room for the piano bench on stage. What follows is a description of working conditions that will facilitate my work enormously. In fact, if we can manage all of them, I will be as happy as a bear at a honey pot.
It is important for us to have a good, well-tuned grand piano with which to work. I use a synthesizer and a drum machine, which I bring with me. The piano should be positioned so I can turn my face toward the audience and they will be able to see me.
It is a priority that words be heard clearly. Oddly enough, the visual aesthetics are equally important. Specifications for sound needs as well as a stage plot, are on my website www.KenMedemaMusic.com. My personal manager Beverly, who travels with me, will do the actual sound mixing. Many sound systems are, quite frankly, inadequate for use with music.
There is no way for me to know at this distance whether yours is suitable or not. I will depend on you for this information.
As far as lighting is concerned, depending on what is available, we can go with simple stage spots or an extensive light environment.
My normal concert will run between ninety minutes and two hours. Due to time considerations as well as a concern for continuity, I am asking that no other musicians or speakers be placed on the program without discussing it with us prior to the concert.
Matters Practical
My event fee ranges from $5,000 to $6,000 per concert. Let me stress something at this point. If there is no way you can manage this amount, I am quite open to negotiation.
Also, you will be responsible for travel expenses for two. We make the travel arrangements, because we know from whence we come and to where we will be going. We do get super-saver fares and book around weekends whenever possible.
Included in the expenses are hotel or motel lodging and meals for the days we are there. We require two single connecting rooms or a suite with separate living room area and pull-out couch. To simplify billing, we request that you charge the hotel and meals directly to your organization, not to Ken Medema Music.
I am asking you to send $750 as a deposit to confirm and hold the date I have offered you. Should you decide to cancel for any reason up to 6 months prior to the event, your deposit will not be refunded because we have reserved this date for you, for- going other possible bookings.
If for any reason I should miss the appearance (such as illness or plane trouble), your deposit will certainly be refunded. Cancellation within the 120-day period prior to the scheduled concert date will result in the total fee payable to Brier Patch Music negotiation.
It is important for us to have a good, well-tuned grand piano with which to work. I use a synthesizer and a drum machine, which I bring with me. The piano should be positioned so I can turn my face toward the audience and they will be able to see me.
It is a priority that words be heard clearly. Oddly enough, the visual aesthetics are equally important. Specifications for sound needs as well as a stage plot, are on my website www.KenMedemaMusic.com.
My personal manager Beverly, who travels with me, will do the actual sound mixing. Many sound systems are, quite frankly, inadequate for use with music. There is no way for me to know at this distance whether yours is suitable or not. I will depend on you for this information.
As far as lighting is concerned, depending on what is available, we can go with simple stage spots or an extensive light environment.
My normal concert will run between ninety minutes and two hours. Due to time considerations as well as a concern for continuity, I am asking that no other musicians or speakers be placed on the program without discussing it with us prior to the concert.
