BYU BRAVO! Professional Performing Arts Series Producer and Presenter Lyndsay Keith Shares Her Secrets for a Successful Season
The BYU BRAVO! Professional Performing Arts Series brings professional performers from across the world to BYU’s stages and classrooms. Each year, producer and presenter Lyndsay Keith carefully curates a season of masters that come to inspire audiences and mentor students in one-of-a-kind learning opportunities and unique performances.
With the start of the 2024-25 BRAVO! season right around the corner, Keith shared how her education at BYU prepared her for her role with BRAVO!, what her process is for organizing a memorable season and what she loves about her job in the Q&A below.
Q: How long have you been the producer/presenter of the BRAVO! Professional Performing Arts Series?
Keith: I’m going into my third season. I began working here in September 2022.
Q: What skills did you learn during your time as a student at BYU that have prepared you for this role?
Keith: The first helpful experience was becoming aware of BRAVO! and experiencing performances as a student. I still remember attending a life-changing Chris Thile concert in the de Jong Concert Hall in the former Harris Fine Arts Center with some friends. It planted a seed for me that grew into an interest in arts management and presenting. So, when I applied for this job, I already knew about the Series and understood its purpose.
As a performance major, I also learned what it's like to be the performer onstage and how to prepare adequately for a performance. This helps me understand and meet the needs of my guest artists without in-depth explanations because we speak the same language of performing.
I also served as president of the Student Advisory Council of the School of Music as a student. In this role I strengthened leadership, communications and event planning skills that directly benefit my responsibilities now as I mentor student employees; interact professionally with colleagues, guest artists and managers; and oversee all the various aspects of bringing BRAVO! events to fruition.
Q: What is the process of choosing artists for the BRAVO! season?
Keith: Promoters go through what is called “booking cycles.” Mine runs approximately between October and March. I start by looking at available dates on the calendar, then I compare the availability of artists I'm interested in. It's a bit like the well-known object lesson of putting different-sized rocks in a jar. I prioritize what artists I most want (usually big-name headliners, but sometimes special projects as well) in a given season and lock them in first — the biggest rocks in the jar. Then I fill in the medium and small rocks based on the budget and calendar openings I have left compared with the artists I’m interested in. The size of “rock” has nothing to do with an artist’s skill level, but merely how high the artist is on my list of priorities for a given season.
I aim to rotate through a long list of genres and subgenres to make sure that I cover all of the disciplines studied within the College of Fine Arts and Communications at least once in a three-year period so that students in those majors have a direct opportunity to observe and learn from professionals in their chosen field. . For any given artist or act, I contact their agent to discuss availability, then submit an offer letter. Once an offer is accepted, we go to contract and finalize terms including the artists involved, the dates and the fee. Sometimes I have to move acts around on the calendar to make everything fit. I also try to space out acts that are similar to each other, usually in different semesters, so that each one gets the attention it deserves.
Once I've finished booking all of the artists for the season, I work with our marketing team to design our season announcement materials, and then we launch!
Q: What do you look for when choosing who to welcome to campus for the season?
Keith: I work hard to find artists who are not just masters at their craft but are also skilled teachers and mentors. Every guest artist participates in some sort of educational event with our students, whether it's a masterclass, Q&A or onstage collaboration. This is one of the core purposes of BRAVO!, and I want students to walk away from these interactions feeling inspired, motivated and that their career goals are possible. Simply said, performers are specifically chosen for their prowess as well as their ability to complement BYU’s aim to share light and hope for the benefit of the world.
Another core purpose of the Series is to provide wholesome, uplifting entertainment that patrons of any age can enjoy. I know that the Series has cultivated trust with our patrons that they can come to any BRAVO! performance and find high-quality talent alongside clean, appropriate content. I take that responsibility very seriously.
The trouble is often choosing from a long list of worthy possibilities! I have ideas brewing for at least the next three seasons and am always moving rocks in and out of the jar.
Q: What do you hope audiences and students get from the season?
Keith: Karl Paulnack, director of the Music Division at Boston Conservatory, once said, "Someday at 8 p.m. someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft."
I'm not the one performing, but those potential benefits depend directly on who I choose to invite to our stage. Sure, some audience members may come just for the entertainment factor, but I guarantee that at least one person comes to each BRAVO! performance needing something deeper. They need the touch of the Master's hand, through someone who has mastered their craft and can be an instrument in His hands, to be made whole again.
That is why I spend months scouring the globe to find artists who are just the right fit. They are good people who can invite the Spirit by the way they live their lives, the performances they give and the feedback they give to our students.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
Keith: I love BYU and everything that it stands for. It's a great privilege to program arts performances for this community, especially where the values match my own and can be reflected in the type of acts that I choose. I love introducing our audiences to new performers that I've discovered as well as bringing legendary performers to our stages.
I also enjoy watching our students become inspired as they learn from and collaborate with our guest artists. This helps fulfill the BYU mission of providing “intensive learning in a stimulating setting where a commitment to excellence is expected and the full realization of human potential is pursued.” There are so many things to love here!