Whether it’s your child’s first ballet recital or your very own first public performance as a professional artist, recitals are joyous and proud events that celebrate a person’s development and achievement in a challenging art form. Recitals are a natural way of sharing this accomplishment and joy with family, friends and the community. Recital invitation wording should appropriately reflect the occasion. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to word a recital invitation.

Decide who will be inviting the guests. This is important because it determines the wording of the recital invitation. This could be the parents of the performer, the teacher of the performer or the performer himself.

Determine the mood of the recital. If the recital is a large, formal affair in a hall or auditorium, your recital invitations should be formal. If this is a casual recital at someone’s home, or an intimate affair for only close family or friends, the wording can be informal and written with humor, if appropriate. The nature of your wording should reflect the style of the recital itself, as this will help guests to come appropriately dressed and prepared.

Begin the recital invitation with a sentence that conveys who the inviter is and who the performer is. If the parents of the performer are sending out the invitations, you would write “Please join us for our daughter Pamela’s first recital!” If a teacher is sending out the invitations, you would write “Jean Smith invites you to a recital of her piano students. Join us for an evening of beautiful music!" If the performer is the inviter, you would write “Please join me as I perform in my first recital!”

Under the opening sentence, list the date and time of the recital. Write the name of the venue and the complete address.

At the bottom of the invitation, indicate if reservations are required. If so, list the complete RSVP information, such as phone number and RSVP date.