Three strategies to plan your first informance (without the overwhelm)

A while back, I shared why informances matter, how shifting from polished performances to authentic showcases of learning is one of the most powerful equity moves a music educator can make. The response from that post was overwhelming, and the question I kept hearing was the same one: "Okay, I'm sold. But where do I actually start?"

That question is exactly why I wrote this post. If you haven't read the original piece yet, I'd encourage you to start there. It lays out the "why" behind informances and how they center student equity in a way that traditional concerts simply can't. But if you're already on board and you just need a clear path forward, keep reading.

Planning your first informance does not have to be complicated. It does not require a full curriculum overhaul. What it does require is a shift in how you think about the goal.

And that shift starts with these three strategies.

Strategy #1: Start with your learning goals, not your repertoire

This is the single biggest mindset shift between a traditional concert and an informance. With a performance, you usually start by picking the music and then you teach toward it. With an informance, you flip the sequence entirely.

Begin by asking: What have my students been learning? What do I want families to understand about our work together? The music, movement, or creative work you showcase flows from those answers. When you root the event in learning goals, you stop performing for the audience and start sharing with them — and that distinction is really important (it also does wonders for the advocacy role that we keep finding ourselves in!).

Strategy #2: Build in student voice from the very beginning

One of the most important (and coolest!) things about informances is that they can genuinely belong to students in a way that polished performances rarely do. Give students agency over how they share their learning. Let them narrate a section, choose between two ways of demonstrating a concept, or reflect aloud on what was hard and what clicked. This is not about less rigor; it's about more authenticity. When students explain their own process to their families, the audience stops watching a show and starts witnessing growth. Growth that only happens in the music setting. How great is that?!?

Strategy #3: Give families and informance-goers a role, not just a seat

Traditional concerts position concert-goers as passive audience members. Informances can flip that dynamic entirely. Think about how you might invite folks in the audience to participate: A brief call-and-response moment, a prompt that invites them to try what students have been practicing, or even just a written reflection card they complete while they watch. When audience members are active participants rather than observers, the informance becomes a community learning event, not just a school event.

That change in structure has the power to strengthen the relationship between your program and the communities you serve in ways that no polished concert ever could.

And, I’ll say this again because it’s a hill I’ll die on: The more you engage with your audience and community, and the more authentically you do that, the more you are advocating for your programs.

These three strategies are just the beginning. Knowing the strategies intellectually is very different from actually sitting down with your calendar, your curriculum map, and your specific students to build something real. That's where planning support makes all the difference.

If you're ready to move from thinking about your first informance to actually designing it, I have something coming up that I think you'll love.

Check out the live workshop I have coming up all about this—where you actually start working on this in realtime! Get ready to collaborate, make some decisions and put a plan in motion. Bonus: You’ll also get an informance toolkit I created of 22+ resources and tools you can use right away.

Learn more and register for that here.

Cheers to you and all the amazing things you do!