Holly Mulcahy 
A satirical look at how regular concert goers negatively impact the future of classical music.
An engaged, enthusiastic, and diverse audience is one of the strongest measurements for justifying an orchestra’s value. During my years as a violinist in various orchestras around the country, I have witnessed audiences lose their enthusiasm for live concerts and turn their backs to orchestras as the result of behavior not just from those inside the ensemble but from those around them.
An engaged, enthusiastic, and diverse audience is one of the strongest standards for justifying an orchestra’s value. During my years as a violinist in various orchestras around the country, I have witnessed audiences lose their enthusiasm for live concerts and turn their backs to orchestras as the result of behavior from those inside the ensemble.
The last two months I covered how music directors and musicians alienate audiences, and this month’s article will focus on managers. Unlike the previous two groups, managers are somewhat different in that they are not as visible to concert goers. However, they just as much if not more influence on how audience members experience a concert so out-of-sight, out-of-mind doesn’t really apply here. As such, here’s a step-by-step guide managers can use to identify the problems along with some practical advice on how to avoid the traps.
An engaged, enthusiastic, and diverse audience is one of the strongest measurements for justifying an orchestra’s value. During my years as a violinist in various orchestras around the country, I have witnessed audiences lose their enthusiasm for live concerts and turn their backs to orchestras as the result of behavior from those inside the ensemble.
Last month’s article showed how conductors alienate audiences through certain behaviors and this month is the musician’s turn. Of course, not every musician is guilty of the transgressions below but they happen often enough that they contribute to alienating an audience, so I’ve created this step-by-step guide to identify the problems along with some practical advice on how to avoid the traps.
An engaged, enthusiastic, and diverse audience is one of the strongest measurements for justifying an orchestra’ value. During my years as a violinist in various orchestras around the country, I have witnessed audiences lose their enthusiasm for live concerts and turn their backs to orchestras as the result of behavior from those inside the ensemble.
A growing reality is nobody seems to learn from these mistakes and instead, treats them as though they should be expected behavior. Concerts and rehearsals are becoming as predictable as bad sitcoms but instead of turning preachy about how each group needs to avoid making the mistakes, I’ve created this step-by-step guide to identify the problems which contribute to alienating an audience along with some practical advice on how to avoid the traps.
One of the best activities after a concert is to talk about it over drinks. For musicians, talking about a concert that has just been performed boils down to a musical postmortem. What went well, what went horribly wrong, how it could (read: should) have been better, are all tossed about over beer or wine.
By the nature of their training, musicians are trained to be hyper-critical with their own performances. Whether it is solo, chamber music, or orchestral music, the inner critic never shuts off. And while this is a very good tool to keep skills sharply honed, it can be detrimental in certain situations.