[Dixielandjazz] Now here's a thought for Jazz Performers
Stephen G Barbone
barbonestreet at earthlink.net
Sat May 16 09:05:24 PDT 2009
Now here's a way to get your Jazz Festival audience involved. Have
them choose your encore.
Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
May 16, 2009 - NY TIMES - by Stephanie Clifford
Texting at a Symphony? Yes, but Only to Select an Encore
Cellphones are hardly applauded in concert halls, where it’s
considered gauche to have them turned on, much less to pull them out
during a performance. So at a recent Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
concert of classics like Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, it was a little
surprising when the conductor instructed audience members to take out
their phones.
Symphony administrators had decided to let the audience choose the
encore by text-messaging votes: “A” for Aaron Copland’s “Hoedown,” or
“B” for Wagner’s prelude to Act III of “Lohengrin.” (“Hoedown” won by
23 votes.)
“There was a little hesitation on the part of the musicians at first,
like, ‘What?’ ” said Samuel Banks, a 28-year-old bassoonist in the
symphony. “It’s the cardinal sin to have your cellphone go off during
concerts. It’s better to fall asleep than to have your cellphone go
off.”
The symphony, faced with aging patrons, is trying to appeal to a
younger audience. And, like other arts organizations, it is trying to
make performances more interactive, adding a sprinkle of “American
Idol”to the temples of high art.
Along with the Indianapolis Symphony, the New York Philharmonic has
also asked audience members to choose encores via text. In recent New
York performances of Mozart’s “Così Fan Tutte” by a small opera
company, attendees used text messaging to decide which couples would
end up together. Museums, too, are using mobile technology in audio
tours.
It’s a shift for arts organizations, which typically select their own
programs rather than ask for audience feedback. (Text “1” if you want
Ophelia to live. Standard rates apply.)
The Indianapolis Symphony began offering text voting at its casual
Happy Hour performances last fall. Rather than making audiences spell
out, say, “Mussorgsky” on their keypads, ExactTarget, the company that
ran the voting, simplified the process by having the audience members
text “A” or “B” for their choices, said R. J. Talyor, a product
marketing manager there.
Mr. Banks got over his initial distaste when he noticed that, if
anything, fewer cellphones rang during the Happy Hour concerts. (He
says he thinks it’s because younger audience members remember to set
their phones to silent mode.)
“Vaudeville, cabaret, they’ve been taking requests for centuries now,
and we’re a little late in getting on board,” he said. “We’re giving
the patrons really their only opportunity to impact the programming,
and it is very small, but it’s a nice gesture.”
Attendance at the Happy Hour concerts has risen throughout the year,
said Jessica Di Santo, a spokeswoman for the symphony.
The New York Philharmonic began asking audience members to text-
message votes for encores at last summer’s concerts in New York City
parks. It will repeat the project this summer.
Last year at the Philharmonic’s June 24 concert in Central Park, about
2,000 votes were sent, and an orchestral arrangement of Jimi Hendrix’s
“Purple Haze” beat out Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee.”
Daniel Bartholomew, a 38-year-old academic adviser at Yeshiva College
who attended the concert, cast his vote for Hendrix.
“It was less passive than just sitting there and listening to music,”
he said. “I don’t think a classical concert has to be so formal.”
Museums are also using cellphone technology: mobile phones are
streamlined replacements for clunky audio-tour handsets. The Walker
Art Center in Minneapolis asks patrons to call a local number and
enter a code, listed next to a work of art, for information about that
piece. More than 500 museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, the
Philadelphia Museum of Art and the National Portrait Gallery, use a
service called Guide by Cell, which offers audio clips.
In at least one case, mobile technology has been part of a director’s
message. Gina Crusco, the artistic director of the Underworld
Productions Opera Ensemble, asked audience members at a recent
production at Symphony Space in Manhattan to select which of the six
main “Così Fan Tutte” characters should end up together. (In most
productions, after scenes of false identities meant to test women’s
faithfulness, two sisters end up with their original fiancés, with
their maid and the instigator of the test, Don Alfonso, standing by.)
“It reflects the fact that there are many outcomes,” Ms. Crusco said.
“Rather than putting it in the hands of the men to forgive them or
not, we see that they could do any number of things, and then it’s up
to the audience to fuse an ending that makes the most sense
dramatically.”
Of course, when a director asks concertgoers to participate in a
performance, some patrons might respond in unexpected ways.
What if a bored audience member texted something like, “End this
concert now”?, Mr. Talyor, the product marketing manager at
ExactTarget, was asked.
“They’d get a message back, saying, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t understand
that request,’ ” he said, laughing.
Steve Barbone
www.barbonestreet.com
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband
More information about the Dixielandjazz
mailing list