Know exactly who the performance is for.
Some performances are for a discerning musical audience. An ACDA Conference performance, perhaps.
Other performances are for elementary school students. A runout concert, maybe.
Some performances are for a avid audience including family and friends. That’s your regular concert series.
Others are for an audience who are there for something else. If you’re singing the National Anthem pretty much anywhere, the audience isn’t there for you.
Still others are just for the people in the audience. Think those quiet moments onstage when the rest of the world disappears.
Every audience requires different things from you – different energy, different demeanor, different message, different repertoire. If you performed an ACDA Conference set for 3rd graders, you would have a very distracted group of 9-year-olds, and if you performed a set intended for 3rd graders at the ACDA Conference, it might not land very well.
At every step of the journey, know who you’re performing for.