Have you ever
attended any concert ?
How was your
experience there?
Answers
Answer:
The first concert I attended was with my class at Carnegie Hall, where Leonard Bernstein conducted Aaron Copland’s “Rodeo”. It was part of his Young People’s Concert series which ran from 1958 - 1973 and touched many school aged children. I had grown up listening to classical music, but when I actually saw the NY Philharmonic play under Bernstein’s exuberant direction I was mesmerized, sat the the edge of my sest and couldn’t take my eyes of him or the orchestra. At the time, it felt like the best experience I ever had!
It’s an unsettling feeling when the audience doesn’t appreciate the performer. I attended Music and Art High School in New York City where you were either accepted as a music or art student, after a vigorous entrance exam, etc. Picture an audience where at least half the people are aspiring musicians...the concert was a special event set up for us to enjoy. It was an electronic music show. The person hired, walked onto the stage with a large electrical box. ( this was 1962) . He plugged it in and then proudly played a Beethoven Symphony. At first we were surprised, then shocked then a wave of anger flowed through the audience. What was happening on stage? A machine was playing our beloved Beethoven? How dare a simulated instrument play this? We needed real musicians! All of us had those looseleaf notebooks, where you could pull out pages. Someone started it and soon all of us were ripping pages out of our book, crumpling them into balls and throwing them at the stage! The school Principal ended the performance. Rather than punish us all, we had a discussion with the performer about the future of music and how live musicians must never be replaced. Now that was memorable!
One other memorable concert I attended was of Bob Dylan. Most of us enjoyed his acoustical songs played on guitar with occasional added harmonica . Much to our surprise, he came out with an electric guitar and started to play and sing. The audience went wild yelling at him to take that electric guitar away! He kept playing but many people left.
A unique and wonderful concert I was invited to last year was in someone’s home. It was so enjoyable to listen in such an informal setting, and talk to the performers afterwards.