Hayden Eric

Surprise! Tonight 8-11pm Art Ovation Downtown SRQ
Lots more Dates and Venues Being Announced March 🙌🏼☺️

Thank you everyone who commented on both Instagram and FB the past few days! Here is the final list I put together of the most commented Worship Songs. I need to bring this list down to four songs for the South Africa Mission Trip. Please Vote below which four should be selected.

*Surprise*
TONIGHT from 8-11pm I’m back at Art Ovation Hotel SRQ! See you there

Hello everyone! Tonight I’ll be at Art Ovation from 8-11 PM because of traveling I will not be performing next week… this has modified my typical first and third week schedule. Also, moving forward my new start time will be 8pm and will finish at 11pm. Hope to see you there :)

Going to TRY live-streaming tonight during my Art Ovation live performance. It may flop and sound terrible or look terrible, if so I’ll end it quickly but want to try something out 🙂 stay tuned I begin around 7 and go till 11.

To those planning on coming to Art Ovation tonight I will not be starting till 8pm due to an Art event happening in the lobby! My last set will finish at 11pm. I look forward to seeing you all there 🙂

Tonight from 7pm-11pm I’m back at Art Ovation Hotel!
See you all there 🙂

Tonight's the night! Don't miss out on an evening of creativity and community at Art Ovation, 7-11pm.

I have reached 500 followers! Thank you for your continued support. I could not have done it without each of you. 🙏🤗🎉
I also wanted to take a moment to announce that I’m no longer performing at Art Ovation Hotel, and will be focusing more of my time on getting back to recording original music 🙂
Thank you all for your support and for coming to watch me perform over the years, it means the world to me! 💙

Happy Monday everybody! I wanted to notify you that this Friday is going to be a special performance at Art Ovation. I've been away for a month and I'm so excited to kick off performances again with a night of collaboration and celebration. A local artist by the name Heather Elle will be live painting while I perform and this painting is going to be inspired by music. I don't want to give too much away, but you won't want to miss it! 7pm-11pm Art Ovation Hotel downtown Sarasota. Official event coming soon, be sure to say yes or maybe if you're coming so we can have proper set up.

I can not believe it has been 1 year already... Feb 4th, 2022 I began my relationship with Art Ovation Hotel in downtown Sarasota playing music every Friday night. It has been one of the best decisions musically I've made in my whole career.
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Many people do not know my whole story but for those who have the time to read this post and are curious about it... I started teaching myself how to play piano at the age of 3 and by age 6 my parents enrolled me in proper piano lessons, from that moment on I never looked back.
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Growing up, when anyone asked me, "Hayden what do you want to be when you grow up?" I would always respond with the same answer, "I want to be a singer!". Over the years I took advantage of every opportunity I could performing in bands, singing in choirs, recording generic quality covers and posting them on YouTube, and believing with all my heart, mind, and soul, that I was going to make my dreams a reality.
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When I turned 18 I moved away from Sarasota, convinced that what was holding back my music career was my location, so I left and moved to Tennessee. I continued my music education in college and secretly hoped, wished, and prayed that my music career would take off so I did not have to complete college. (God works in mysterious ways though and always has a bigger plan).
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Shortly after moving to TN I developed a sickness that would not go away which resulted in me having to get throat surgery, at this point I lost my voice and was convinced I would never sing the same again. Thankfully after a few months of rest my voice slowly started to come back, one vocal exercise at a time.
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I decided to drop out of college after two years and move to Nashville, TN. Once again, convinced that I had to move to a new location to make my dreams a reality... I should also mention that previous to moving to Nashville I had received a few opportunities to sign with independent record labels which ultimately ended up being fraudulent companies (musicians beware of the industry scams).
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After moving to Nashville, I was even more motivated and began networking like crazy, working my butt off getting songwriting opportunities, TV placements, collaboration projects, and gigs. It was at this point that I noticed a shift happening in my life where suddenly my passion and love for music was fading away and my distaste for the business side of music was growing rapidly.
I could have never imagined the things I would see, experience, hear, while chasing after my dreams. Some good but majority bad.
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In October of 2019 I received the call I had been waiting for my entire music career life... the president of a very large record label wanted me to self release music and after proving I could gain traction organically I would be signed. I saved up a lot of money and found the best studios in Nashville, sang my heart out, re-recorded the piano part a million times until it was perfect, and directed producers and musicians on which direction to go to bring a song in my head to life. January 2020 I released my first single, High Dive, which performed phenomenally! It hit 1K streams in the first week and continued to grow day after day.
Shortly after my January release I put out another single called, Favorite Country Song, a pop country broadway song that was meant to share my diversity of sound. While recording a full length EP for my third release of 2020, finalizing my deal with the record label, the pandemic hit and shut down everything. I received one simple email saying the record label was no longer interested and was no longer searching for new artists at this time. I've never heard from them since.
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I let frustration, sadness, and money strip away the joy and love I had for music on this journey to try and "make it". Feeling like I had lost a loved one I decided I would let me dreams finally die after 20 years and move on.
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Shortly after the shut down Sarah and I moved to Florida to be closer to family and to get away from the drama of music city. It was at this point that I had my first encounter with Art Ovation. My family and I had stumbled a cross this beautiful hotel lobby after grabbing a dinner and met this amazing bar tender named Stephanie.
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After enjoying a delicious old fashioned I asked Stephanie if I could play the vacant piano sitting in the corner of the lobby, she replied, "Sure, go ahead!". A few songs later and a crowd naturally formed around the piano, to my delight I was enjoying playing music again, no stress of making money or how many followers were liking a post on Instagram, just playing music and seeing strangers enjoying it.
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We left after a drink and never returned. Over a year later while shopping for my moms Mother of the groom dress for my wedding I received a call from Stephanie asking if I'd be interested in coming in to the hotel to audition for a resident artist spot that had opened. I was so conflicted, do I restart this life again or do I say no thank you and walk away. I'm thankful for my family who convinced me to give it a try one more time.
I ended up getting the job, and now, like I mentioned a few chapters ago, it has been one year of me performing at Art Ovation.
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When I started a year ago I set a few rules for myself that I have stuck to this entire past year...
1. I will play songs that I like and that bring me joy when I perform them.
2. I will not stress myself out if I don't know a song that is requested of me or if I do not like the song requested.
3. I will learn how to accept a compliment and genuinely take it to heart.
4. I will say a prayer and set an intention before I start my first song hoping that my music will speak to someone in the crowd.
5. No matter how much money is in my tip jar at the end of the night I will be grateful and thankful.
6. If I find myself no longer enjoying the gig I will leave and not look back.
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By setting these rules for myself I had peace in my heart that I could take this journey one step at a time and stop at any moment. I'm so thankful for Art Ovation, the amazing piano I get to play, the wonderful lobby acoustics that bring my voice to life, the thousands of strangers who've come up to me to say kind words or just simply listen from a far off seat.
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I'm thankful for my family who have stayed up late on Friday nights just to keep me company and be the last hands to applaud. Finally, I'm thankful for my wife Sarah Richau, who has been to every Friday night performance, even on days that she wasn't feeling the best or wasn't in the mood, who is my biggest cheerleader and biggest fan.
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I don't know what my future holds with music, and that's okay, I know I have two journals that are full of unreleased songs. I know that I have a strong voice that has many more years left to sing and I know that I've got strong hands that are still able to play hours of music on the keys without hurting. As for all the other details, I have no expectations.
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Thank you to those who read this entire book of a post, and who have followed me over the years and supported me. (raising my fake glass) "Cheers to one year at Art Ovation, to music, and to the unplanned and unexpected!"
- Hayden Eric

*Attention* This Friday night I will not be performing at Art Ovation Hotel from 7pm-11pm! Future Reschedule date TBD