WELCOME TO THE SALON AT THE (ZEN) GARDEN
Welcome to our Salon community!
The idea of creating a music salon was not a revelation that dawned on us in a bright 
morning. There were many crumbs during the last decade leading us to this point. For sure, Gloria, a friend from the cold Syracuse University times, became one of them. For years her husband, a musician, had been running a salon in their living room in Massachusetts. She glowed as she shared many amazing stories.
Another was our falling in love with Japanese architecture and the Sukiya style where the garden is an extension, both physical and emotional, of the living room. This took us on the ‘least travelled’ path of remodeling a property and building a Japanese style garden. The crazy idea became a gigantic challenge, but it is finally now a reality. The garden, by the way, is by all accounts in a juvenile state. With effort, good pruning, and fertilizing the garden will be mature in about 20 years, and reach perfect glamour and grace in 75 years. Yet another was the sudden surprise of an emptying nest. In truth, 
we did not have to see a therapist about it. However, the true (and coolest) one was the fact that neither one of us had any musical training but always loved music and theater. We could now do something about it. And in doing something new we could meet art lovers, talk and learn about music, open our home to something exhilarating, and hopefully support talented artists in their journey.
Alda, the practical one, however made me quickly come to terms with the fact that I had a dream, just a dream and nothing else. From an idea to making it happen there was a lot to be done, and we knew zilch about it. We discovered Andrea Clearfield online, and for one of those rare coincidences she had plans to be in Arcosanti, one-hour North of Phoenix, in a few months. And so, as luck would have it, we had an expert mentor by our side, right from the start. Andrea’s Salon in Philadelphia had just celebrated 26 years. The timing was apparently ‘ordained.’ You may take a few minutes to get to know Andrea by clicking here.
Andrea has done much
of the work to get us to the point of hosting our first Salon at the Garden. In addition to all the talent prospecting, logistic arrangements, and planning she will be performing and MCing the night. A team of about 10 of us will be walking on her shadow to learn the art of planning and hosting a Salon. Hopefully, we will be celebrating, too, our maturity in about 20 years. And, yes, we hope that many of the new friends will be engaged and celebrating it with us.
We just a few more things for you to know about the Salon:
- Attendance is by invitation only. Invitations will need to be RSVP.
- In order to enter your name in the database we would like to chat with you. The ‘Contact Us’ form will do the trick. We just want to make sure that everyone has a safe and enjoyable experience.
- If your name is in the database you will automatically notified of new Salon events.
- There will be a $20 donation per person. The proceeds will go entirely to the performers.
- If your budget does not have enough breathing room, we can take two or three volunteers to help with the set up and clean up afterwards. Drop us a note.
- There will be one 20-minutes break during the performance. There will be wine and various finger foods, light fare in general during the break.
- If you are one of those gifted people who love to cook, please bring a plate to share. We will provide the wine and sodas.
- The break will be an opportunity to mingle with others and the performers. The same will be true for after the performances (sorry, no guarantees about food then)
- The Salon is for Adults and Young Adults only. Please no children or pets. We can’t accommodate them.
- The maximum our place can accommodate is 40 people. The first 40 to RSVP are the first served.
Welcome to our little Scottsdale Zen corner.
Alda and John Zerio